As negotiators are gathered in Bangkok, Thailand for another round of talks to advance the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), ALI has written its newest report, Negotiating a Digital Agreement to Protect Workers, which explains the importance of the U.S. negotiating an IPEF digital agreement that will protect workers in the 21st century data-driven workplace. We are pleased to share with you an excerpt from the introduction below:
The fast-paced growth of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, and data analytics have the promise to strengthen the middle class through wage growth and create economic and security benefits for the United States. However, these technologies also raise important concerns regarding privacy, safety, economic disruption, and especially new challenges confronting workers. Debates on these issues are currently playing out regarding the digital agreement being negotiated as part of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
While addressing these concerns as well as gaps in U.S. domestic regulations complicate our ability to promote an agenda globally, remaining on the sidelines is not an option if we want to advance rules that will protect workers and shared democratic values. If America doesn’t move quickly, it leaves the door open to China’s growing predatory technology leadership and autocratic internet standards, which threaten workers. China is currently pursuing these standards through its RCEP agreement with many of the same countries that are part of IPEF.
In fact, negotiating such an agreement is an opportunity for the U.S. to advance digital agreements that create worker rights for the 21st-century data-driven workplace.
To read the full summary as it was originally posted by American Leadership Initiative, click here.
To read the full report, click here.