ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the history of US efforts to use trade agreements to regulate cross-border information flows. He use the word "Internet" as shorthand for advanced digital technologies and services that greatly facilitate the creation, storage, analysis, and sharing of data and information. The author also relies upon the US International Trade Commission's definition of digital protectionism: barriers or impediments to digital trade, including censorship, filtering, localization measures, and regulations to protect privacy. He explains the importance of information flows to the Internet and Internet governance. The author next analyzes US efforts to regulate these flows in three key trade agreements: TPP, Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). He then describes some of the problems in this turn to trade policy. Critics of the e-commerce are understandably concerned that TiSA could undermine rather than support the open international nature of the Internet.
