In the News

Some of the most important U.S. laws that govern global trade and the flow of information across borders are outdated. Not disrupted by cutting-edge tech that has come out in the last few years outdated, but enacted before Amazon was even a company outdated.

Leaders from Amazon and Microsoft as well as congressional representatives from Washington state gathered at Amazon HQ Monday for Washington Council on International Trade’s trade summit. In the same room where Amazon welcomes 500 new employees every week from around the world, speaker after speaker advocated committing to trade agreements and updating existing pacts, while acknowledging the complications of doing so to reflect today’s technology.

Global trade deals have become a popular scapegoat to explain why some communities and sectors have fallen behind in recent years. President Trump quickly withdrew the U.S. from a global trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, soon after his election and has threatened to withdraw from NAFTA, the trade pact from the 1990s between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.