European Regulators Take Aim at US Tech Companies

[Commentary] Even as US and European officials negotiate a major free-trade agreement, a new form of protectionism has surfaced across the Atlantic. Some in Europe are pushing for policies that would limit the free flow of data over the Internet. The calls for regulating the Web are also a symptom of a broader problem -- a languishing economic partnership between the US and Europe.

Most pernicious is the proposal to create a "European cloud," a communications network that would prohibit data from traveling to servers outside the continent. The West needs to tap new sources of economic growth. Liberalizing trade -- the purpose of the continuing Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks -- will help. But there's another way to unleash much-needed growth, and that's by capitalizing on our shared comparative advantage in digital innovation. The US and Europe's differences are considerable but bridgeable. Nobody wants a trade war as a newly aggressive Russia lurks in the background. But President Obama must offer more forceful leadership to finish TTIP and to offer reassurances on surveillance, data protection and privacy. That would go a long way in fostering the trans-Atlantic cooperation that has atrophied since the Cold War ended.

[Marshall is president of the Progressive Policy Institute]