WASHINGTON – Ahead of the U.S. House Ways & Means Trade Subcommittee hearing examining foreign governments’ targeting of U.S. tech companies, Competitiveness Coalition Chairman Ronna McDaniel released the following statement: 

“America’s innovators and startups are the envy of foreign governments, but rather than create a business-friendly climate to grow their own class of competitive tech companies, European leaders in Brussels and elsewhere have resorted to punishing our companies with discriminatory laws and taxes,” said Chairman Ronna McDaniel. “While former President Joe Biden folded and allowed entities like the European Union to enact sweeping protectionist laws like the Digital Markets Act – with his FTC Chair Lina Khan sending FTC staff to Brussels to help implement the law – the Trump Administration is taking a different tack and pushing back. We look forward to learning from the witnesses today and working with House Ways & Means Committee Chair Jason Smith and Trade Subcommittee Chair Adrian Smith to keep America at the forefront of global tech competitiveness.”

The Competitiveness Coalition has a long history of raising concerns over foreign digital services taxes and punitive laws like the Digital Markets Act. During the Biden Administration, both the FTC and Department of Justice (DOJ) dispatched respective taxpayer-funded agency officials to help with implementation. The Biden FTC previewed this commitment in a March 2023 press release and a Politico EU report indicated that agency staff were dispatched to Brussels for six months to “provide technical assistance” to the European Commission. Consequently, the Competitiveness Coalition submitted a FOIA records request to get to the bottom of this suspected collusion between the Biden FTC and European regulators and response documents later shared by the FTC Office of Inspector General demonstrated that the entities worked closely together. 

For more information on the Competitiveness Coalition’s work, please visit competitivenesscoalition.com. Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com.

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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.