Global Connect
Global Connect is the leading business voice on international digital economy policy, including on issues of digital trade, cross-border data flows, data privacy, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and emerging conversations around platform regulation. We support good regulatory practices, sound policy frameworks, and high-standard trade disciplines for the digital economy—and push back against protectionist measures that distort digital markets.
Regulatory Cooperation
We promote the use of government-to-government regulatory cooperation initiatives and the implementation of Good RegulatoryPractices (GRPs) between foreign governments. GRPs include commitments to transparency, collaboration between governments and stakeholders, and the use of risk and science-based decision making. Also, we work to shape the international roles and responsibilities of U.S.regulators while working with member companies to address regulatory challenges in specific sectors.
Competitive Markets
Competition policy and antitrust enforcement are essential to the competitive operation of markets. We advocate that antitrust enforcement should be transparent, fair, predictable, reasonably stable over time, and consistent across jurisdictions. Further, we believe that all antitrust investigations and enforcement decisions should be based on sound economic analysis and that governments should not use competition policy as an industrial policy tool to achieve protectionist goals that circumvent commitments to trade and open markets.
Investment
We advocate for an open climate for investment around the world. Policy priorities include: safeguards against inappropriate, market-distorting, government-led, or directed investment; national security reviews of investments that are conducted in a transparent, systematic, and expeditious manner, with a focus on strictly defined national security criteria; removal of inappropriate investment barriers on foreign ownership; and further development and advancement of U.S. bilateral investment treaties that include an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation (GRC) seeks to align trade, regulatory, and competition policy in support of open and competitive markets.
Member Benefits
- Participate in setting policy priorities and providing advocacy input
- Invitations to meetings with key stakeholders across the global regulatory and digital economy arenas
- Direct access to senior leadership of the Center for GlobalRegulatory Cooperation
- Monthly update and other program communication
Workstreams
Internationally, Global Connect drives policy development on digital economy issues and coordinates those policies across the division. Policy emphasis includes: (1) data protection and privacy, (2)cybersecurity, (3) cross-border data flows, (4) regulatory frameworks for emerging technologies, (5) trade and investment rules for the digital economy, and (6) the fight against forced localization policies, local content requirements, and technology transfer.
Global Connect addresses these issues through three distinct initiatives: Project Privacy, Project Security, and Project Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) and Digital Health Connect.
Global Connect Board
The Global Connect Board is the nerve center to develop, prioritize, and coordinate the policy, messaging, and advocacy strategies for the Chamber’s international digital economy work.
Project Privacy
Develops and advances data protection and privacy policies that make sense for consumers and businesses by engaging with policymakers, privacy regulators, and industry leaders bilaterally and multilaterally to shape privacy law.
Project Security
Advocates a flexible, risk-based approach to cybersecurity that leverages international standards and enables the private sector to develop solutions that address specific cyber needs and scale them across national borders.
Project Data-Driven Innovation
Develops and promotes best practices and policies in response to the rapid advancement of the digital economy owing to emerging technology and big data; works with policymakers to achieve an appropriate balance between responding to the disruptive nature of these technologies and fostering continued data-driven economic growth.
Digital Health Connect
A partner initiative between Global Connect and the Chamber’s Global Initiative on Health and the Economy, Digital Health Connect supports the forward momentum of the digital health sector to both improve global public health outcomes and to positively influence U.S. industry and embraces data-driven innovation, so that health care leaders can enhance access, quality, and efficiencies across the healthcare ecosystem. The goal of the initiative is to work with both the public and private sectors to establish proper governance frameworks, and conducive regulatory environments that promote rapid and equitable access to public health interventions.
Our Views
Digital Trade
We work to drive an ambitious U.S. digital trade agenda that sets high-standard rules needed to ensure an open and competitive global digital economy. We push back against foreign governments that impose protectionist barriers making it harder for U.S. companies to compete on a level-playing field.
Data Privacy
We seek durable frameworks on data access and transfers and oppose data localization requirements. Working with foreign countries and international institutions across the globe, we pursue sound data protection and privacy policies that support privacy and enable a range of legitimate business practices.
Data Flows
We believe that cross-border data transfers are a vital component of doing business in today’s economy. To that end, we identify and mobilize against protectionist measures across dozens of markets—including data localization requirements, data transfer restrictions, and forced data sharing mandates.
Data Governance
We work to shape the laws, regulations, and standards that govern how data is collected and used. We are focused on policy frameworks that govern government access to personal data, but increasingly voluntary and mandated data sharing arrangements, issues around data ownership, and other attempts to regulate non-personal data.
Artificial Intelligence
We encourage a collaborative approach to AI that enables innovation rather than relying on overly prescriptive regulations.
Cybersecurity
We advocate international collaboration and alignment in cybersecurity frameworks to ensure a more secure and resilient digital ecosystem.Government mandates are not the solution, as we believe in industry-led/risk-based security standards as well as information sharing between the public and private sectors.
Platform Regulation.
We oppose attempts to subject U.S. companies to regulatory discrimination that unreasonably disrupts legitimate business activities. From attempts to advance industrial policy objects to content moderation efforts, we work to encourage governments to adopt sensible, non-discriminatory regulatory approaches.
