Witnesses representing industry, policy, and labor groups urged lawmakers Tuesday to strengthen and better coordinate U.S. digital trade policy, warning that shortcomings in patent law, trade rules, and worker protections could weaken American innovation and competitiveness.
At a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, witnesses pointed to the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and online platforms on global commerce as driving the need for updates.
A central focus of the discussion was intellectual property protection.
Andrei Iancu, co-chair of the Council for Innovation Promotion, a bipartisan, pro-patent lobbying organization, said Congress has a critical role in modernizing the patent system to confront emerging threats such as deepfakes, online counterfeit sales, and overseas copyright piracy.
Iancu argued that strong intellectual property protections are essential to maintaining “U.S. leadership in innovation and should be part of any comprehensive digital trade strategy.”
He urged lawmakers to advance several bipartisan measures that have been under consideration for multiple Congresses, including the RESTORE Act, the PREVAIL Act and the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act.
“As technology evolves, so too must the legal frameworks that protect creators, innovators and, consumers,” Iancu said.
Nigel Cory, director of digital, technology and trade policy at Crowell Global Advisors, a global government affairs and public policy firm, focused his testimony on international trade rules and what he described as a growing wave of digital protectionism.
Cory called for building what he described as a “trusted data agenda” to support U.S. cloud service providers and help them compete globally, including against Chinese firms.
He also urged the government to identify and challenge restrictive digital policies early, escalate disputes through existing trade tools when necessary, and treat repeated barriers as presumptively trade-restrictive.
Dan Mauer, director of government affairs at Communications Workers of America, a communications and media labor union. said the United States lacks a meaningful national policy on AI and warned that excluding workers from policymaking would be a “critical failure.”
Mauer urged lawmakers to involve workers and their representatives in shaping AI and digital trade rules and to ensure policies empower workers. He said workers should have access to data about how technology affects their jobs, and that trade agreements covering AI should include strong consumer and worker protections, citing risks ranging from job displacement and declining job quality to misinformation and harmful online content.