While the European Union has been causing U.S. tech companies headaches for nearly a decade, a new report warns the same problem could soon spread to Latin America.
The report from Public Policy Solutions, titled “European-Style Digital Hostilities Infecting the Western Hemisphere: America’s Backyard is Becoming a Testing Ground for Regulatory Nightmare,” outlined how the Western Hemisphere could soon be home to the same regulatory issues that plague the United States in Europe. Worse yet, they argue, the effort is coming from key U.S. partners in the region, mainly Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Brazil.
The regulatory issues are primarily legislation regulating artificial intelligence, restrictive data rules designed to punish U.S. digital and telecom companies, and other protectionist measures. However, the report argues that the protectionist measures are particularly egregious as they don’t apply to China, which has struck lucrative telecom deals all across the region.
“Huawei is wiring 4G and 5G networks, building cloud infrastructure, and embedding itself in sensitive national data systems in places like Mexico and Brazil. Each deal expands Beijing’s reach and gives the [Chinese Communist Party] leverage over technologies that underpin the economies and security of America’s closest neighbors,” the report read.
One recent example outlined in the report was a $89 million antitrust fine imposed on Google in 2024, based on a new law that experts view as similar to a data collection regulation law in the EU, which has resulted in multibillion-dollar fines on U.S. tech companies.
The report urged Washington to take an aggressive approach to the encroaching new regulatory offensive in Latin America, recommending the use of trade deals to protect U.S. tech companies in the region.
“For far too long, the European Union has used a protectionist regulatory approach to the United States to use American tech and telecommunications companies as an ATM while shielding their own firms from competition. We now see those same misguided and unfair tactics being adopted by countries in our own backyard,” PPS President Joe Grogan, former assistant to the president for domestic policy, said in a statement.
“Our latest report highlights the danger of Latin American countries taking a page out of the European playbook, driving a wedge in our key economic and security relationships. Meanwhile they roll out the red carpet for an adversarial and unreliable partner: China. As the United States near-shores our supply chains, it is critical we have confidence that strategic partnerships in our own hemisphere are not compromised by countries granting leverage to Beijing,” he continued.
Grogan praised the Trump administration’s “strong and swift” response to recent EU attacks on U.S. tech companies, urging the same approach to be taken with its southern neighbors.
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Along with the report, PPS sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging him to implement its recommendations. A similar report published in July helped the U.S. take a more aggressive approach with Europe.
“Ensuring that the Western Hemisphere remains a region defined by openness, security, and
shared prosperity requires rejecting the discriminatory measures now emerging in parts of Latin
America,” Grogan said in the letter. “We hope this expanded report serves as a useful resource as the administration continues to engage on these matters.”
