Frustration, hope, confusion: USTR’s digital trade rethink draws mixed reviews

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s decision to withdraw support from some digital trade positions at the World Trade Organization and, perhaps, elsewhere has been both celebrated and condemned by lawmakers, industry and analysts, but they are all facing the same question: What happens next? USTR last month said it would withdraw support from proposed provisions on data flows, data localization and source code in the plurilateral WTO negotiations on e-commerce, positions that for the past several years had...