The president should seek a stronger alliance with European allies, particularly against China, but he should not “give away the store” by sacrificing U.S. economic and technology interests simply to make amends.
Europe
June 8, 2021
ITIF hosted an expert panel discussion discussing EU-US digital trade relations and what both governments should do to foster closer relations without sacrificing U.S. digital innovation.
May 24, 2021
The European Commission has set out to ensure digital markets are “fair and contestable.” But in a paradigm shift for antitrust enforcement, its proposal would impose special regulations on a narrowly defined set of “gatekeepers.” Contrary to its intent, this will deter innovation—and hold back small and medium-sized firms—to the detriment of the economy.
May 7, 2021
It would be a massive step in the right direction if policymakers in the United States and around the world could focus on the facts and weigh up the various interests and stakeholders in a similarly sober and dispassionate way as the CJEU.
May 3, 2021
Norway is pivoting toward renewable energy—including offshore wind and electric vehicle technologies—while broadening and deepening its national innovation ecosystem to encourage new firms in a range of industries to scale up and compete globally.
April 30, 2021
The new approach advocated by the European Commission for competition enforcement towards digital markets illustrates a preference for precaution.
April 15, 2021
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, called for a “new transatlantic agenda for global change.” Before such a needed partnership can be fruitful, the EU will need to make a number of changes.
March 25, 2021
Transatlantic data flows are essential to organizations of all sizes and industries—not just large technology firms. The EU and United States must establish clear, consistent legal mechanisms for data transfers so both sides can thrive in an increasingly digital global economy.
March 23, 2021
ITIF's Center for Data Innovation hosted a video webinar to discuss the transatlantic opportunities and challenges to promoting better cooperation in military use of AI.
March 18, 2021
ITIF's Center for Data Innovation hosted a discussion about what the digital sector needs to unlock the power of data while spurring competition and innovation.
March 1, 2021
The “growth tax” seems to not significantly affect patenting in firms with more than 50 employees, since larger firms are more profitable and innovative due to economies of scale and have already priced the tax into their cost structures.
February 21, 2021
Notably, the deal agreed on December 24th gives important exemptions that will allow the UK to continue to export electric vehicles without facing tariffs.
February 11, 2021
ITIF filed comments advising the Commission not to introduce such a tax. ITIF explained the many reasons why the planned digital levy is a misguided recommendation, and urged the Commission pursue a more reasonable path:
February 8, 2021
The DGA is a positive step forward in outlining a framework to enhance data sharing in the EU and promote data-driven innovation, however further clarification will be necessary to ensure data protection and competition laws do not prevent firms from sharing data, to safeguard trade with non-EU countries, and to prevent the public sector from charging excessive fees for data access.
February 4, 2021
The Center for Data Innovation welcomes the goals of the EHDS initiative and agrees that adopting measures to enable better data exchange will facilitate artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled healthcare applications in the EU and allow firms to pursue economies of scale across EU markets.
January 29, 2021
Organizational efficiencies should not be an opportunity to enforce precautionary measures in innovation markets.
January 25, 2021
The Commission’s inception impact assessment envisages the possibility of no longer enforcing competition laws with respect to independent platform workers in order to improve their working conditions. The four options identified by the European Commission are misguided and detrimental to consumers, platform workers, and innovation. ITIF articulates 10 better ways to improve the working conditions of economically vulnerable platform workers while preserving the proper enforcement of EU competition laws in a fast-changing and highly innovative digital platform economy.
December 17, 2020
WASHINGTON—Upon the European Court of Justice’s invalidation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or “model contracts” have remained the only scalable and widely accessible legal tool available to organizations transferring personal data from the European Union to the United States and most of the rest of the world.
December 17, 2020
SCCs are a widely used legal tool to transfer personal data out of the EU, but courts and regulators are making them costlier and more complex. This is a sign of Europe’s march toward de facto data localization—a threat to transatlantic digital trade that policymakers must avoid.
December 4, 2020
The EU and the United States should come to an agreement: Both nations will agree that the EU can engage in protectionist digital industrial policies only when and if the ratio between the trade deficit in IT/services is at least 10 percent the trade deficit in goods.
December 3, 2020
The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield’s demise affects thousands of firms that relied on it to transfer data. Policymakers should realize the enormous trade and innovation stakes involved—both bilateral and global—and build an improved framework for data protection and digital trade.
December 1, 2020
ITIF’s Center for Data Innovation hosted a high-level forum to connect stakeholders working to promote AI in Europe, showcase advances in AI, and promote AI policies supporting its development to EU policymakers and thought leaders.
November 30, 2020
Research spending unfortunately is seen by many as an “add-on” rather than an essential economic driver, so it is not prioritized in times of crisis such as the pandemic, even though research is crucial to developing a COVID vaccine.
November 30, 2020
The principle of legal certainty states that the law must be sufficiently clear to provide those who are subject to it with the possibility of regulating their conduct accordingly. Unfortunately, the issue of legal certainty in the discussions and proceedings against big tech has mostly been overlooked despite its fundamental importance in preserving the optimal incentives for market players.
October 28, 2020
The European Commission has failed to allocate anywhere near the level of financial support that will be necessary to meaningfully accelerate clean energy innovation.