The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and digital titans Google and Amazon had tight ties as they attempted to circumvent international laws, including those that safeguarded traditional media outlets, as shown by recently unearthed emails.
According to the New York Post, the watchdog group Demand Progress has said that Google and Amazon are trying to use their “revolving door” ties with the USTR to “hijack U.S. trade policy” for their personal gain. The research is based on a series of emails that were received through a Freedom of Information Act request, which were exchanged between executives of Google and Amazon and USTR representatives between May 2023 and April 2024.
A significant correspondence from May 2023 discloses how Google attempted to involve the USTR in its opposition to Canada’s Online News Act, which mandates that Google and Facebook parent company Meta compensate publishers for online content display. Nicholas Bramble, Google’s head of trade policy, asked to meet with three USTR employees to talk about “upcoming changes in Canada.” Just four work days had passed since the meeting, when Google was invited to publish their public comments outlining their objections and concerns over the Online News Act by USTR’s Andrea Boron.
Links to a “list of key issues and proposed amendments” that Google had shared with Canadian politicians were made available, along with a transcript of an executive’s public testimony in which the business was told to “reconsider” providing news material in Canada should the law go into effect. In November 2023, Google struck a last-minute agreement with Canada, agreeing to pay media outlets $74 million in exchange for the privilege to negotiate with a group of local news outlets rather than with individual companies, despite its attempts to undermine or kill the measure.
The emails also show occasions in which Amazon made use of its connections to the agency. In August 2023, Danielle Fumagalli of the USTR asked employees at Google and Amazon for feedback on a plan that was being considered in Japan with the intention of assisting local cloud computing companies in bidding for government contracts. Fumagalli’s communication to Amazon was directed to Mary Thornton, who joined the firm as the head of trade and export controls policy for its cloud subsidiary after serving as a director at the USTR.
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