Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV)
Washington, D.C. –Yesterday, Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) and her colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee participated in a hearing with United States Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer to examine the Trump Administration’s 2026 trade policy agenda. During the hearing, Congresswoman Miller raised questions regarding upcoming initiatives in the digital trade sector, the importance of a long-term extension of the e-commerce moratorium, and future steps toward lifting the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
A video of Congresswoman Miller’s questions and the Ambassador’s responses, along with a full transcript, can be found below.
Congresswoman Miller began by highlighting the growing challenges in the United States’ digital trade sector with Korea, emphasizing the persistence of discriminatory digital regulations that unfairly target American companies and undermine fair trade. She then questioned the witness, United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, on the status of potential investigations into Korea’s digital trade barriers and what enforcement measures the Administration may pursue to address digital discrimination and protect U.S. economic interests.
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Ambassador Greer, for being here today. After a four-year vacuum in the trade arena during Biden’s administration, I’m really excited to see what your leadership and President Trump’s leadership over the next year will lead us.
I want to take the opportunity to ask you about upcoming measures in the digital trade sector. This year’s National Trade Estimate addressed the immediate need to address a host of unjustified digital trade barriers imposed by our trading partners. I’ve spoken with you at length about the need to address digital discrimination, and that Korea is a particularly bad actor in this sector. Korean officials continue to advance discriminatory regulations, including its Online Platform Monopoly Act and Cloud Security Assurance Program. I believe Korea’s and similar actions are being taken by other countries, particularly in the EU, that they warrant section 301 investigations.
Could you please provide an update on the status of any potential investigations, and what might the resulting enforcement actions look like?” asked Congresswoman Miller.
“Certainly. So with respect to the EU, for example, and Korea too, you know over the past year, we have concluded framework agreements with both of these countries and both of them have committed to fair treatment of US platforms.
Now, I think with the EU, they have a different view of what’s fair than we do, right. I have the European trade commissioner coming. He’s coming on Friday and this is right up there in our topic of discussion among a handful of other things. So it’s something that we raise with them consistently.
You know they have their different divisions in the EU that have authority over this. And we are working together with the state department, with the Department of Justice to have an aligned U.S. government position. Certainly USTR, we can do an investigation. We are in negotiations right now. We want to try to have an outcome there if we can. But we, you know, we can quickly be able to deploy and investigation enforcement action if needed,” responded Ambassador Greer.
Congresswoman Miller then explained the importance of securing a long-term extension of the e-commerce moratorium and criticized spoiler countries for blocking its adoption at the March WTO Ministerial Conference. She then questioned Ambassador Jamieson Greer on the Administration’s strategy for achieving a permanent or long-term extension.
“Thank you. Another key factor for advancing the digital trade sector is approving a long-term extension of e-commerce moratorium. I was disappointed to see that a few spoiler countries arbitrarily blocked adoption during the WTO Ministerial Conference held in March.
What is your plan for establishing a permanent or long-term extension for e-commerce moratorium? Do you believe that this can be accomplished during the first post- MC14 General Council Meeting in Geneva, Scheduled in May, or do you think we should seek plurilateral agreement outside the WTO?” asked Congresswoman Miller.
“Well, we’re trying to do both. So we’ll have a meeting in early May, and there were two holdouts, Brazil and Turkey, who apparently want to be able to assess fees on American digital content. So if they do that, they’ll pay a price for sure. All that being said, we got, America got 164 countries to agree with it that we should have a longer extension. And we’ll move forward to a plurilateral agreement on that front,” responded Ambassador Greer.
Congresswoman Miller concluded by asking Ambassador Jamieson Greer about the necessary steps to lift the outdated Jackson Vanik Amendment.
“Great. And I finally want to ask you about updates regarding lifting the Jackson-Vanik amendment. You’ve previously stated that we should strike a deal with Central Asian countries and to optimize the benefits for American companies before lifting Jackson-Vanik.
Central Asia is rich in natural resources that we currently largely source from China and Russia. One path that I can envision toward lifting Jackson-Vanik is by establishing a critical minerals agreement between the United States and Central Asian countries. We would achieve this by following something similar to the action plan on critical minerals proposed with Mexico and Japan.
What are your thoughts on securing similar agreements with Central Asian countries and subsequently lifting Jackson-Vanik?” asked Congresswoman Miller.
“Well, I think that a number of US government agencies have had constructive talks with Central Asian republics on critical minerals, which is very important. It’s just one sector among many. And as you know, these countries, you know, they’re large countries, they have growing economies and we should be there.
I think that any kind of, you know, when Congress moves to take care of Jackson-Vanik or anything like that, I think it certainly should be coupled with movement on critical minerals and other market access that we need into those countries,” answered Ambassador Greer.
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