AEI, Twelfth Floor
1150 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
On Friday, AEI’s Claude Barfield welcomed Deputy United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Robert Holleyman to AEI for a discussion of digital trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
Ambassador Holleyman’s remarks provided a thorough overview of the agreement’s provisions for digital trade and the potential they have to enhance innovation and opportunity worldwide. He highlighted the risks inherent in delaying passage of the agreement in Congress, as nations in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere continue to erect barriers to the free flow of data that put the success of our global Internet economy at risk.
An in-depth discussion following Holleyman’s remarks touched on privacy concerns and their influence in ongoing trade negotiations; how the USTR has worked to socialize the provisions of the TPP to smaller, emerging economies; whether China’s “great firewall” represents a barrier to trade; and, if so, how the US should respond.
Overall, the discussion provided an enlightening, informative look at an influential aspect of the TPP and the precedents the agreement may set for digital trade on a global scale.
–Evelyn Smith
In the fall of 2015, the United States and 11 of its Pacific trading partners successfully negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement — a landmark free-trade agreement with cutting-edge provisions to promote online commerce and digital trade. The independent US International Trade Commission characterized TPP’s digital trade-related provisions as “the most transformative measures in the agreement” and predicts that these rules will benefit all US manufacturers, retailers, and service providers that depend on Internet-based technologies to trade.
Will the TPP’s template for regulating digital trade become the global norm? Is this template affecting other US trade initiatives, including the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trade-in-Services Agreement negotiations? Please join AEI Scholar Claude Barfield as Deputy United States Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Holleyman shares his perspective on this important agreement.
Join the conversation on social media with #HolleymanatAEI and @AEITech.
If you are unable to attend, we welcome you to watch the event live on this page. Full video will be posted within 24 hours.
8:45 AM
Registration
9:00 AM
Keynote:
Robert Holleyman, Office of the United States Trade Representative
9:30 AM
Panel discussion
Participants:
Claude Barfield, AEI
Robert Holleyman, Office of the United States Trade Representative
Joshua Meltzer, Brookings Institution
9:50 AM
Q&A
10:00 AM
Adjournment
Claude Barfield is a resident scholar at AEI who researches international trade policy (including trade policy in China and East Asia), the World Trade Organization (WTO), intellectual property, and science and technology policy. He is a former consultant to the Office of the US Trade Representative. His many books include “Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy: The Future of the World Trade Organization” (AEI Press, 2001), in which he identifies challenges facing the WTO and the future of trade liberalization.
Robert Holleyman serves as deputy United States trade representative with the rank of ambassador at the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). He was confirmed by the US Senate for this position on September 18, 2014. His responsibilities include US trade and investment relations with Asia, as well as trade negotiations and policy coordination in the areas of services, investment, intellectual property, and innovation. In addition, he represents USTR on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and serves on the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US government’s development finance institution. In the private sector, Amb. Holleyman worked for more than two decades internationally and in the technology sector. In 2013, he founded Cloud4Growth, a cloud technology development venture. Before that, he served as president and CEO of the Software Alliance (BSA) from 1990 to 2013. He is widely known for his engagement in the areas of innovation, intellectual property, cybersecurity, e-commerce, and emerging technologies. In his prior public service, Amb. Holleyman held the positions of senior counsel for the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, as well as legislative director and assistant to Senator Russell B. Long. He also served as a law clerk for US District Judge Jack M. Gordon of the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Joshua Meltzer is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution and an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, where he teaches international trade law. At Brookings, he works on international trade law and policy issues, with a focus on the World Trade Organization, large free-trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, digital trade, and trade and climate change. Dr. Meltzer also works on financing for sustainable infrastructure. He has testified on trade issues before the US Congress, the International Trade Commission, and the European Parliament. Before joining Brookings, he was posted as a diplomat at the Australian embassy in Washington, DC, where he was responsible for trade, climate, and energy issues. Before that, he was a trade negotiator in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has appeared in print and news media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, Asahi Shimbun, and China Daily. He holds an S.J.D. and LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School and law and commerce degrees from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
