CCIA was pleased to learn senators added provisions to better protect digital goods ahead of the U.S. Senate Finance committee markup a bill today to permanently normalize trade relations (“PNTR”) with the Russian Federation and Moldova. CCIA issed a news release asking for better trade protections online after the Russian parliament’s vote to blacklist websites and allow them to be shut down.
As Matt Schruers writes in his blog post for CCIA’s DisCo Project, “One aspect of the proposed mark-up that merits attention is that it would require the USTR to report on barriers to digital trade in Russia. The bill achieves this by amending an existing international review process – the Trade Act of 1974’s so-called “Special 301” review– to also identify “laws, policies, or practices” that “deny fair and equitable treatment to U.S. digital trade.” For more please see his complete post here.