II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1788 

To make it a negotiating principle of the United States in negotiations 

for bilateral, plurilateral, or multilateral agreements to seek the inclusion 

of provisions that promote Internet-enabled commerce and digital trade. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 10, 2013 

Mr. THUNE (for himself and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To make it a negotiating principle of the United States 

in negotiations for bilateral, plurilateral, or multilateral 

agreements to seek the inclusion of provisions that promote Internet-enabled commerce and digital trade. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Digital Trade Act of 

5 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find8 ings: 


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1 (1) The Internet has become an unprecedented 

2 medium for competition, trade, free expression, and 

3 access to information. 

4 (2) The Internet is a driver of the global econ5 omy and must remain open, stable, and secure. 

6 (3) Trade in Internet-enabled services and 

7 transfers of data and other digital information have 

8 become increasingly critical drivers of the economic 

9 growth of the United States. The United States 

10 International Trade Commission found in a July 

11 2013 report, entitled ‘‘Digital Trade in the U.S. and 

12 Global Economies, Part 1’’, that ‘‘U.S. exports of 

13 digitally enabled services (one measure of inter14 national digital trade) grew from $282.1 billion in 

15 2007 to $356.1 billion in 2011, with exports exceed16 ing imports every year’’. 

17 (4) The United States is the global leader in 

18 Internet-enabled platforms, networks, and services. 

19 Certain liability protections for those entities under 

20 the law of the United States, which promote innova21 tion and creativity and allow for cooperative efforts 

22 to address harmful activity, have been critical to the 

23 growth of the Internet economy in the United 

24 States. 


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1 (5) According to McKinsey & Company, more 

than 3 2 ⁄4 of the value added by the Internet is in tra3 ditional industries. 

4 (6) Internet-enabled commerce and digital trade 

5 benefits small- and medium-size enterprises by pro6 viding unparalleled access to global markets. 

7 (7) Proposals have been put forward by some 

8 trading partners of the United States to restrict the 

9 flow of lawful information across borders. Those pro10 posals would cause increased government control 

11 over the Internet and could create a fragmented 

12 Internet. 

13 (8) Localization barriers to trade are frequently 

14 used to protect, favor, or stimulate domestic indus15 tries at the expense of industries in other countries. 

16 Those localization requirements harm the competi17 tiveness of and end-users in the United States. 

18 (9) Restrictive policies regarding the flow of in19 formation across borders are nontariff barriers that 

20 are harmful to innovation and economic advance21 ment. Those policies impede trade in digital products 

22 and services and constrain the ability of United 

23 States companies from many sectors to effectively 

24 operate across borders. 


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1 (10) Cross-border data flows are critical to 

2 manufacturers, institutions of higher education, hos3 pitals, retailers, financial services firms, laboratories, 

4 and many other organizations that use the Internet 

5 to improve their productivity and manage global net6 works of customers, suppliers, researchers, and em7 ployees. 

8 (11) The free flow of information across bor9 ders provides choices and reduces costs to consumers 

10 worldwide. 

11 (12) The position of the United States Govern12 ment has been and is to advocate for the free flow 

13 of information across borders. 

14 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con15 gress that— 

16 (1) agencies in the executive branch, including 

17 the Office of the United States Trade Representa18 tive, should be staffed with experts and leaders to 

19 fulfill the mission of promoting an open, global 

20 Internet that facilitates commerce and digital trade; 

21 and 

22 (2) private sector stakeholders should have the 

23 opportunity to formally inform efforts of agencies in 

24 the executive branch related to digital trade. 


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1 SEC. 3. NEGOTIATING PRINCIPLES FOR INTERNET-EN2 ABLED COMMERCE AND DIGITAL TRADE. 

3 It shall be a negotiating principle of the United 

4 States in negotiations for a bilateral, plurilateral, or multi5 lateral agreement, and in multi-stakeholder fora, to seek 

6 the inclusion of binding and enforceable provisions that 

7 promote and enhance Internet-enabled commerce and dig8 ital trade, including provisions— 

9 (1) preventing or eliminating barriers to the 

10 movement of electronic information across borders, 

11 including by encouraging interoperability of data 

12 protection regimes and eliminating barriers to ac13 cessing, processing, transferring, or storing informa14 tion; 

15 (2) ensuring transparency in measures affecting 

16 the free flow of information within and across bor17 ders; 

18 (3) continuing the current practice of not im19 posing customs duties on electronic transmissions; 

20 (4) prohibiting measures that condition market 

21 access or other commercial benefits on localization of 

22 data, infrastructure, or investment; 

23 (5) prohibiting any country from imposing 

24 measures that require an entity to use computing in25 frastructure or services in that country or otherwise 


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1 require an entity to access, process, transfer, or 

2 store data in the territory of that country; 

3 (6) ensuring that the Internet continues to op4 erate within the successful multi-stakeholder govern5 ance model; 

6 (7) ensuring that provisions affecting inter7 mediary liability for Internet-enabled platforms, net8 works, and services are consistent with the law of 

9 the United States; 

10 (8) ensuring digital trade policies contemplate 

11 various business activities across all industrial sec12 tors and allow for future technological advancement; 

13 and 

14 (9) otherwise eliminating discriminatory treat15 ment of Internet-enabled commerce and digital 

16 trade. 

Æ 


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