Newly discovered emails reveal how Google and Amazon used their access to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office to seek to undermine foreign regulations, including efforts to protect traditional media.

In May 2023, Google attempted to involve the USTR in its fight to defeat or at least water down Canada’s online news law, which took effect last December. The law requires Google and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to pay publishers for the right to display their content online. Meta left Canada in response.

That month, Nicholas Bramble, Google’s head of trade policy, sent an email to three members of the USTR – Senior Director of Services and Digital Commerce Andrea Boron, Deputy Assistant Trade Representative Robb Tanner and Director for Canada Randall Oliver – to request a meeting on “upcoming developments in Canada”.

The USTR granted the meeting request, which took place four business days later, according to the emails. On June 5, USTR’s Boron thanked Google employees for their time and asked them to share “Google public comments” detailing objections and concerns about the Online Information Act.

Bramble responded with links to a “list of key concerns and proposed amendments” that Google provided to Canadian lawmakers.

The private email exchange provides insight into what the group describes as a “shadow war” waged by big tech companies to “hijack U.S. trade policy” for their own benefit – in part by maintaining a relationship of “ revolving door” with key federal agency, Demand. Progress, a nonprofit advocacy group, said in a report on the emails.

The Canadian documents included a transcript of public testimony in which Google’s vice president of news, Richard Gringas, warned that the company would “reconsider” offering news content in Canada if the law came into effect. in force. Google also offered a Financial Times opinion piece that argued for “other, less confrontational solutions.”

The messages were part of a tranche of emails between Google and Amazon executives and USTR officials exchanged from May 2023 to April 2024. They were obtained through a Freedom Act request information from Demand Progress and provided exclusively to The Post.

“We cannot allow giant corporations to hijack government, bypass the Senate-confirmed U.S. Trade Representative, and replace policy priorities that serve us all with new ones that only serve them and theirs. their shareholders,” added the group.

In an email from September last year, Google’s Bramble asked the USTR if the company could provide a “rapid update” on Canadian law. A day later, USTR’s Boron responded to set up a phone call and said she was “very anxious to hear from you.”

After fighting tooth and nail to weaken or defeat the bill and even threatening to remove news content entirely, Google finally reached a last-minute deal with Canada last November and agreed to pay 74 million dollars to the media.

Google obtained a concession by gaining the right to negotiate with a consortium of local media outlets rather than each one individually. Google’s chief legal officer, Kent Walker, took a victory lap when he said he was “pleased that the Government of Canada is committed to solving our fundamental problems.”

Asked about the emails, Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement: “We engage regularly with government officials on many issues, particularly those that could harm U.S. consumers and interests.”

Castañeda added: “Both publicly and privately, we have shared our concerns about foreign government policies that disadvantage American businesses, and we will continue to do so. »

A USTR spokesperson said the work of agency head Katherine Tai and her team “over the past three and a half years demonstrates an unwavering commitment to workers and defending their rights.”

“The Biden-Harris administration’s trade agenda is specifically designed to give workers a seat at the table after they were neglected for decades,” the spokesperson added.

Watchdogs warn that big tech companies are using their influence over USTR and other federal agencies to help shape a pattern of lenient regulatory policy, both in the United States and abroad, that protects its interests at the expense of its smaller competitors.

If successful, the effort could undermine any future efforts by Congress or individual states to pass anti-monopoly laws, critics say.

“American businesses are not monolithic, and USTR often must choose between promoting the interests of America’s monopolies and those of small businesses and consumers,” said Dan Geldon, former chief of staff to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D- Mass.

Elsewhere, in August 2023, USTR’s Danielle Fumagalli emailed Amazon and Google staffers to share their views on a proposal in Japan to help domestic companies cloud computing companies to compete for government contracts and explain “how problematic this change would be for you.”

Fumagalli’s email to Amazon appeared to be addressed to Mary Thornton, who was then responsible for trade and export controls policy for the e-commerce giant’s cloud unit. Thornton worked as a director at USTR before joining Amazon.

The close ties between Amazon and the federal agency were also highlighted during a May 2023 exchange.

USTR’s Boron directly emailed Amazon’s head of U.S. trade policy, Kate Kalutkiewicz, to arrange a call ahead of a meeting between the agency and Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, ANATEL.

Kalutkiewicz previously served as USTR Brazil director before joining Amazon.

At the time, ANATEL was considering regulations that would impact Amazon and other Big Tech platforms.

“It would be helpful if you have anything to share,” Boron wrote.

When reached for comment, an Amazon spokesperson said that “like many other U.S. companies with significant domestic investments and job creation, we champion issues that are important to our customers and our sellers, and this includes maintaining open lines of communication with managers in all countries. levels of government. »

Emily Peterson-Cassin, director of corporate power at Demand Progress, said the messages show that Google and other big tech companies enjoy a level of access to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office at a level that others Defenders of the policy simply do not benefit.

“It’s their job to work for the public good,” Peterson-Cassin said. “It’s not their job to work for the good of Big Tech.”

Although their names do not appear in the threads, Google currently employs several high-level policy officials who previously worked at the U.S. Trade Representative.

For example, Karan Bhatia served as Deputy United States Trade Representative from 2005 to 2007 before taking over as Google’s director of public policy and government relations in 2018.

Last November, Insider reported that Bhatia’s name appeared frequently in a separate batch of emails between Google and the USTR — including messages related to the Online Information Act.

The situation attracted the attention of Congress.

In an April 2023 letter to Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a group of Democratic lawmakers criticized efforts by “tech industry groups” to kill the Online Information Act by calling it “unlawful trade discrimination” during negotiations over an international trade deal. called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.

Tai has worked to counter this dynamic and has “resisted forces that attempt to skew trade policy in favor of big business” since taking office as U.S. trade representative in 2021, according to Peterson-Cassin .

“This is exactly the kind of leadership we need moving forward,” Peterson-Cassin added.

Google and Amazon are working to avoid regulatory crackdowns that could upend their business models on several fronts. Both companies are facing unprecedented antitrust scrutiny in the United States and abroad over their alleged efforts to stifle rivals, as well as legislative moves in various countries aimed at curbing their dominance.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google had an illegal monopoly on online search.

A separate Justice Department case challenging Google’s dominance in digital advertising is expected to be argued in November.

Elsewhere, the Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon.