Why Canada Should Delete Restrictive Digital Trade Rules from CUSMA

While the upcoming review of CUSMA, the trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, has dominated headlines, the debate has focused almost entirely on tariffs and the trade of physical goods. Canadians need to know that there’s more at stake beneath those headlines.

Buried in the agreement are five articles in Chapter 19, the agreements chapter on digital trade rules, that limit Canada’s ability to regulate Big Tech. Covering non-discrimination, data flows, computing infrastructure, source code, and platform liability, these provisions have already been used to block or chill Canadian digital regulation. With the review underway this July, Canada has the opportunity to change that while keeping in place the beneficial elements of the deal in place.

To do so, Canada should:

• Remove Articles 19.4, 19.11, 19.12, 19.16, and 19.17 from CUSMA’s digital trade chapter, used to block or chill Canadian digital regulation. Their removal is the precondition for full autonomy in digital markets.
• Preserve and advance domestic digital policy including legislation on privacy protections, online harms, and fraud prevention and resist any trade future commitments that would constrain these areas going forward.
• Assert Canadian data sovereignty by ensuring Canadian data protection law applies to Canadians’ data regardless of where it is processed or stored.

Canada can benefit from expanding trade without sacrificing our freedom of movement in the digital sphere. From competition to privacy to online harms, these rules represent a hurdle to tackling the very real challenges in digital markets.