Publications: Rodrigo Balbontin

Canada should approach exploratory talks regarding a Canada–EU digital trade agreement with caution. Greater alignment with the EU may appear to provide a hedge against U.S. influence, but in practice it risks importing a framework that impedes the potential for Canada’s digital economy and industries while raising compliance costs.

To counter China’s telecom dominance and restore U.S. competitiveness, policymakers should lead a global push for Open RAN standards that foster security, innovation, and fair competition.

A proposed patent tax would punish startups, weaken U.S. competitiveness, and gut a system that has powered American innovation for centuries—all without solving the budget problem it aims to address.

Room remains for the Trump administration to better balance the interests of restoring American manufacturing, removing other nations’ unfair trade practices, and orientating like-mined nations to the long-term China threat in the execution of the Trump administration’s trade and tariff policies.

As U.S. tariffs rise, countries are protecting themselves from American trade policy while cutting new free trade deals elsewhere. A new GTIPA report explores how this paradox could sideline the United States in the next global trade order.

Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance (GTIPA) members from 17 countries analyzed how their economies are reacting to U.S. tariffs. Many countries are seeking to support their local producers and establish trade arrangements that are less reliant on the United States.

More than a decade after the overheated SOPA/PIPA debate, experience from around the world shows that blocking access to piracy websites is an effective way to protect copyright holders and increase legal content consumption without harming legal commerce or free expression.

Advanced technology companies in the United States export more than half a trillion dollars annually. These firms also have a global presence by manufacturing abroad. Retaliation against U.S. tariffs would harm these exports and foster more offshoring.

ITIF offered comments on evidence the UK government should draw on; short- and long-term objectives for the UK-China relationship; areas to engage with China, and areas to draw red lines; how engagement could affect other alliances; and how to assess dependencies on China while strengthening security and resilience.

An ITIF model shows how foreign retaliation to tariffs announced by the Trump administration would reduce U.S. exports of the advance manufactured goods covered under the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement.