ITIF’s Non-Tariff Attack Tracker is a knowledge base documenting international policy assaults on leading U.S. tech firms in the form of discriminatory regulations, targeted enforcement, digital taxes, and data and infrastructure mandates that are framed as neutral domestic measures but in practice weaken U.S. firms, extract resources, and erode their global competitive advantage.

NTAs restrict U.S. firms’ ability to innovate and compete on level terms, undermining U.S. technology leadership, economic strength, and national security in the geostrategic competition with China. Congress and the Administration need to have policy tools at their disposal to identify, document, prevent, and respond to these measures.

“Non-tariff attacks” on U.S. tech companies are not just tax and regulatory hurdles—they are also eroding America’s strategic edge. Washington must identify, deter, and counter these measures in order to prevent ceding U.S. technology leadership to other nations.

A growing proliferation of antitrust regulations, content-moderation requirements, data-localization mandates, digital service taxes, exorbitant fines and fees, and local content requirements reveals a clear pattern: They are designed to unfairly burden and extract revenue from American Big Tech.

By any objective assessment, Canada's Online Streaming Act, which requires foreign streaming services to fork over 5 percent of their Canadian revenues, qualifies as a non-tariff attack.

Korea is trying to unlock high quality data for AI competitiveness, but its push for strict domestic data storage risks isolating developers from the global infrastructure and partnerships modern AI depends on. A more effective approach would protect sensitive data through targeted safeguards rather than blunt geographic restrictions that ultimately undermine innovation and market competition.

Together, the transatlantic alliance can shape the rules of the digital age. Divided, neither side stands a chance.

The European Commission is challenging Meta’s decision to restrict third party AI assistants on WhatsApp, arguing it may violate competition rules. The argument here is that forcing Meta to open its platform would undermine its vertically integrated AI model, weaken incentives for continued investment, and introduce security and operational risks. At a critical moment in global AI competition, such regulatory actions could slow innovation at a leading American firm and advantage foreign competitors.

Global trade is evolving into a form of mercantilist economic warfare where foreign nations use discriminatory regulations to target the U.S. tech sector, draining its wealth and undermining American innovation.