Hilal Aka

As senior South Korean and U.S. officials prepare to reconvene in Washington, the Korean government’s quiet decision to shelve the Platform Monopoly Act while fast-tracking the Online Platform Fairness Act sends a troubling signal. Though framed as a more balanced alternative, the Fairness Act potentially represents another form of non-tariff attack on U.S. tech firms, posing an even greater threat to innovation, legal certainty, and the broader U.S.–Korea economic relationship.

The Trump administration should push back against foreign governments enacting policies specifically tailored to undermine American tech companies and US leadership.

With limited bandwidth for negotiations, we can no longer afford to treat all trade sectors equally. The administration should focus on what matters most for America’s economic and national security future: defending our technology industry from foreign attacks.

EU policymakers frame their legislative and regulatory actions against U.S. tech companies as measures to promote competition and protect consumers. But they operate as protectionist trade barriers and revenue-generating mechanisms.

U.S. trade negotiations must go beyond tariffs to confront the growing trend of foreign governments targeting American tech companies with discriminatory regulations, taxes, and fines. These non-tariff attacks undermine U.S. innovation and global competitiveness and must be a central focus to protect America’s techno-economic leadership.

Vice President Vance was right to warn against stifling AI innovation with excessive regulation, but the Trump administration must go further by pushing back against policies like the EU’s Digital Markets Act and similar U.S. regulatory efforts that undermine American tech leadership. To maintain global competitiveness, the U.S. should support its leading tech companies, ensuring they have the scale and capital needed to drive AI and technological advancements, rather than subjecting them to restrictive regulations that benefit foreign competitors.

The administration should address concerns related to counterfeit products, discriminatory digital taxes, and investment controls for critical technologies with measures to protect American innovation while promoting fair, rules-based trade principles that benefit the U.S. economy and support U.S. technological leadership.

The administration should address mercantilist policies that systematically disadvantage American businesses and workers with corrective measures such as strategic enforcement actions, reciprocal tariffs, expanded trade agreements, and stronger digital trade protections.

The administration should address trade imbalances, discriminatory regulations, and digital trade restrictions imposed by China, India, and the European Union, among others. Targeted policy responses may include reciprocal tariffs, digital trade enforcement, fair pricing mechanisms, and strengthened trade agreements to ensure a level playing field for U.S. businesses.

America should reconsider its antagonistic approach toward Big Tech, instead forging strategic partnerships with these firms—similar to China's recent pivot—to maintain global technological leadership and competitive edge in critical fields like AI and semiconductors.

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.

The DeepSeek breakthrough does not vindicate or discredit antitrust policies but is a wake-up call. Rather than celebrating moves to hobble its tech ecosystem, the United States needs a coherent national strategy that leverages all American innovative capabilities to ensure U.S. AI leadership.

Please join ITIF’s Aegis Project for an expert panel discussion with leaders from the Council on Global Competitiveness and Innovation (CGCI) and Shield Capital as we examine the vital role Big Tech plays in U.S. technology leadership and national security.

Watch ITIF’s Aegis Project for Defending U.S. Technology Leadership's webinar discussion featuring expert panelists as they examine the growing trend of nontariff attacks on American technology companies and exploring ways U.S. policymakers can respond.