The subcommittee chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee said the United States must return to the negotiating table and enforce strong global digital trade rules, criticizing what the speaker described as a retreat by the Biden administration from recent international negotiations.

"Technology products are a crown jewel of American competitiveness," the subcommittee chair said, adding that if the U.S. tech sector were its own country, "its economy would be the eighth largest in the world." The chair warned that strategic and economic rivals have adopted discriminatory digital trade and tax measures that target American companies.

The chair placed blame on a policy shift at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), saying it has been nearly a year since USTR announced it would no longer support core bipartisan digital trade rules in negotiations at the World Trade Organization and in talks in the Indo-Pacific. "The administration has gone radio silent on what our digital trade policy should look like," the chair said.

The speaker cited numbers and public opinion to underline the stakes: the tech sector employs about 8,900,000 Americans and, the chair said, pays roughly 33% more than other industries on average; a recent poll cited by the chair found 86% of American voters say U.S. leadership in writing global technology rules is important.

The chair criticized unilateral measures by foreign governments, pointing to new digital services taxes (DSTs) and enforcement actions in other jurisdictions. "It is unacceptable Canada, 1 of our closest trading partners, is now collecting its DST with little response by the US government," the chair said, adding that a U.S. challenge under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a positive step but "too little too late." The chair also named the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) as regulatory actions that, in the speaker's view, disproportionately affect American companies.

The chair urged the U.S. to negotiate "smart trade agreements that support our innovators, agreements with real teeth" and to ensure the government enforces those agreements so discriminatory measures "will be met with a swift and decisive response from a government that supports its job creators." The remarks concluded with the chair recognizing Ranking Member Blumenauer for his opening statement.

Background and context in the hearing: the speaker framed the statement as an opening remark to a subcommittee session focused on digital trade policy and enforcement. The transcript indicates no formal motions or votes were taken during this statement; the remarks were an overview of the speaker's position and concerns about current U.S. trade enforcement and international regulatory developments.