Google Urges Biden To Work With EU on Tech and Trade

Google is signaling to the White House that a lack of coordination on tech and trade policy across the Atlantic is hurting business. From a report: Google's head of global policy and government affairs, Karan Bhatia, is urging the Biden administration to accept an invitation from the European Commission to form an EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council, according to a post shared exclusively with Axios. Around the world, different countries are proposing and enacting trade, tax, privacy and moderation rules impacting U.S. tech companies. On Thursday, the Biden administration proposed a tax agreement for very large multinational companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, the Wall Street Journal reports. Today's global regulatory patchquilt is a legacy of trade wars launched intermittently during the Trump administration plus aggressive moves aimed at U.S. tech companies from overseas. "Trans-Atlantic coordination has largely become an afterthought, if itâ(TM)s thought of at all," Bhatia wrote in a blog post. "These policy trends hurt both the U.S. and European economies, risking the 16 million jobs on both sides of the Atlantic linked to transatlantic trade and investment," he wrote. "They also make it harder for the U.S. and the EU to address new global technology challenges and partner with emerging economies in Asia." Bhatia says the Biden administration should opt to participate in the proposed Trade and Technology Council to avoid "unilateral approaches" on data flows between the U.S. and Europe and regulation of digital platforms.

UK tariffs

[Martin S.]

In the UK, the retaliatory tariffs are very much perceived as a warning to Boris Johnson not to jeopardise the Good Friday Peace agreement in Northern Ireland in through his headlong pursuit of brexit.

Re:

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

...which has nothing to do wth the EU.

Re:UK tariffs

[MightyMartian]

Um, it has everything to do with the EU. The status of Northern Ireland is THE question between Ireland and the UK, and Ireland is an EU member. The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland was supposed to be open as part of the Good Friday Agreement, but an open border between any part of the UK and the EU just cannot exist since the UK is no longer part of the Common Market, and you have to borders to assure that appropriate tariffs are applied, as well as guaranteeing point of origin, not to mention the UK made such a hullaballoo about controlling borders.

At this point there really is only one solution, and that's for Northern Ireland to be repatriated into Ireland. Anything else creates a fundamental conflict. Any kind of border undermines the Good Friday Agreement, because to not strongly enforce it via border checks, visa checks and the like means neither the EU nor the UK can prevent a porous border with goods and people just flow freely.

Northern Ireland has been a problem that no one seemed willing to solve properly since the Brexit referendum results came in. The back stop was hated by Tories as meaning the UK, or some part of it, would never actually leave the EU. So now, if it's a border that's controlled, the Good Friday Agreement is undermined. And Congress warned the UK even during early Brexit negotiations that anything that threatened the Good Friday Agreement would make passage of any trade agreement between the US and the UK impossible. So now I think it's very clear that Northern Ireland will be reunited with the Republic of Eire, and it's becoming a much stronger likelihood of Scotland departing in the next decade, leaving the UK with about the same overall territorial extent as under Henry VIII after the loss of Calais.

Meanwhile...

[Errol backfiring]

Europe is urging Biden not to work with Google on tech and trade.

For once I agree with Google

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The US should definitely mirror the EU and slap antitrust and online abuse fines on Google.

"Biden administration", not "Biden", please

[Babel-17]

I have no desire, or see any utility, to go along with the fabrication that President Biden is his own man, and can remain cognizant for a long enough period in order to understand an issue at hand such as this one. It must be interesting if his advisors are split on a piece of policy, and they have to compete to sway his opinion using generalisms, and colloquialisms. Fortunately they have the playbooks that were used with Reagan towards the end of his second term, and with George W. Bush after the terroris

Re:

[drkshadow]

I fully agree!!

However it's the role of *president* to make and agree to treaties with foreign nations. This is something that *only* Biden, individually, can do. (Yes I realize there's little to be done without the backing of his team and Corpo--- law-drafting legislature, but Biden will do a significant amount of the talking with foreign leaders.)

Agreed! Biden isn't in any way his own man, doesn't seem to have any idea what is going on, and can't comprehend what anyone is talking about. Europe is going to

Re:

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

I have no desire, or see any utility, to go along with the fabrication that President Biden is his own man, and can remain cognizant for a long enough period in order to understand an issue at hand such as this one...

Yeah I agree, four years of having to live with that was enough!

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

Alright folks let's play a game! Who said it, Trump or Biden?

“Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! —

What it really means is

[Anonymous Coward]

"EUs privacy laws and expectation of taxes is undesirable for us. Do something to make it easier for us to exploit Europeans like we do Americans please"

Re: What it really means is

[loufoque]

"Why won't Europeans understand that us funneling the money generated by their own social interactions back to our shareholders in the USA is for the good of their economy? How dare they ask for taxes to be paid locally? We already pay taxes in the USA!"

Confused? There are still problems?

[AcidFnTonic]

Wait a minute I'm kind of confused. I thought Biden after taking office, had already solved everything with his super political correct kindness and politeness.

Aren't all the problems already solved? We got rid of the big meanie, all the insults, now with all that out of the way I thought these people would have fixed stuff since they're finally not being put down and can shine.

Or perhaps whether the president is polite or not means absolutely nothing.... That's what I was thinking but everyone told me I was wrong back when Trump was in office and the economy was roaring.

Re:

[GlennC]

There are still many problems, but at least there's nobody actively making them worse.

Not that it's getting better, or even likely to get better soon, but at least the United States isn't a complete laughingstock any more.

Granted it's not much, but it appears to be the best we're going to be allowed to get.

Re:

[ganjadude]

not worse? thats a debate to be had for sure, and i think its to early to actually tell myself. I have my thoughts, but id prefer to wait for the results

Re:

[Baconsmoke]

Seriously? No one has said that. Nobody things that a newly elected president should have solved all the country's problems three months after he took office. Literally no one. You've created a strawman that doesn't exist to solve an argument that no one is having. He will likely have to spend his entire four years in office undoing the political damage done by his predecessor.

The fox wants a standard hen house

[couchslug]

Preferably without walls, with plenty of water, and the farmer at the their beck and call.