Trump’s ‘Agreements on Reciprocal Trade’ (ARTs) threaten equitable access to the internet in Global South

A new wave of U.S. reciprocal trade agreements, signed with ten countries since February 2025, contains a buried clause letting Washington flag foreign ICT suppliers as security risks, effectively giving it leverage to push out Chinese vendors like Huawei and ZTE. Several deals go further, requiring the signatory nation to consult with the U.S. on which suppliers pass muster.

Countries like Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Cambodia, where internet penetration lags and tens of thousands of schools still lack connectivity, are the ones signing on. Meanwhile the U.S. has spent years trying and largely failing to purge Chinese equipment from its own networks, replacing only about 12 percent of it between 2019 and 2024.

China's Digital Silk Road has filled much of the infrastructure gap these countries face, often with below-market loans tied to Chinese equipment, raising its own dependency concerns. The U.S. and EU, lacking the manufacturing scale or subsidies to compete, are instead leaning on trade leverage to shape the field.

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