BSA | The Software Alliance - initial contribution

BSA | The Software Alliance welcomes the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) as an opportunity for the United States and the European Union to advance a data governance vision that reflects a shared commitment to democratic principles, fair and open trade, and inclusive growth. As the world’s largest trading partnership, the EU and the US should lead a global conversation on the rules of the road for the data-driven economy. The TTC can be an outcome-oriented forum that amplifies the many transatlantic similarities in tech and trade policymaking.

More specifically, BSA invites EU and US officials to work together to:

• Advance a data governance vision that reflects our shared commitment to human rights and economic freedoms in the digital environment;
• Develop joint principles for the ethical use of artificial intelligence, especially how to mitigate bias;
• Promote trade norms that prevent data localization requirements; work to remove barriers, including data localization requirements, that harm US and EU market access in third country markets;
• Instill a dialogue on shared objectives regarding data sharing and competition in the digital economy;
• Develop a roadmap to advance sustainability goals with digital technology.

BSA also supports efforts to improve governments and industries capabilities and readiness to address cybersecurity threats, and to foster international cooperation. This includes promoting a secure software ecosystem, strengthening cybersecurity workforce capabilities, supporting policies that enable the development of cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies, and other steps to secure and defend information infrastructure. 

In addition, secure and responsible data transfers are critical to the success of many of the policy priorities of the EU and the US, including in the TTC WG. These policies include support for COVID-19 response and recovery, economic development, digital connectivity, cybersecurity, fraud prevention, anti-money laundering, and other activities relating to the protection of health, privacy, and security. These policies also include support for global supply chains, innovation, productivity, and environmental responsibility in every sector of the economy. Shared transatlantic cross-border data policy priorities extend beyond the specific context of the Privacy Shield renegotiation, and we urge both countries to find a way to leverage the TTC to reflect at least some of these shared cross-border data policy priorities.

This document provides an overview of BSA’s main recommendations; we look forward to contributing further to the WGs and offer the global enterprise software perspective as appropriate.

Working Group 1 - Technology Standards

The US and EU have a lot in common when it comes to technology standards. From a process perspective, both countries have a strong interest in standards setting processes that are international, voluntary, and industry-informed. Given that EU and US technology leadership and economic growth depend upon our enterprises’ participation in many markets around the world, both the EU and US gain benefit from global acceptance of the principles in the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) that require technical regulations to be based on international standards and that encourage interoperability among different countries’ technical regulations. To reflect those shared interests, both the EU and US should consider supporting a joint statement of commitment to apply WTO TBT-related disciplines to all emerging technologies. 

From a substantive perspective, there are several areas for possible collaboration and cooperation, including cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence. There is significant common ground between EU and US AI-related initiatives, including the OSTP Bill of Rights Initiative, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and the EU AI Act.  BSA is hopeful that the TTC will serve as a forum for ensuring that we are all working off of a similar map and that we are avoiding unnecessary divergences. One area of shared concern when it comes to AI is the potential for bias and the need to identify actionable steps companies that create AI and that use AI could take to reduce the risk of bias, increase transparency and reduce risk. The BSA Framework to Build Trust in AI includes 50 actionable steps companies can take to increase transparency and reduce risk of bias. BSA supports government regulations that require companies that make or use AI to take these steps. The TTC can help develop joint principles for the ethical use of artificial intelligence, especially how to mitigate bias.