Arabic version: مجموعة تجارية أميركية تعترض على خطة أستراليا لفرض رسم على الأخبار

According to The Guardian, the National Foreign Trade Council has criticised the Albanese government’s proposed News Bargaining Incentive, which would require major technology platforms to compensate Australian media outlets for news appearing on their services. Companies could avoid a higher levy by reaching commercial agreements with publishers.

The US trade body said it was disappointed that the proposed scheme would cover a broader range of American companies, following a decision to include professional networking sites such as Microsoft’s LinkedIn. The NFTC, whose members include Meta, Microsoft and Google, said the Trump administration was committed to fair treatment for US companies abroad and urged Australia to reconsider the measure.

The plan initially covered Google, TikTok and Meta. Under the revised model, platforms would need at least six individual agreements with news publishers, rather than four, to avoid the levy. Assistant treasurer Daniel Mulino said Australian media would be expected to receive between $200 million and $250 million in total under the arrangements.

Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims welcomed progress on the incentive and the removal of the professional-networking carve-out, but said the government should pursue more than $300 million and account for inflation. He also criticised the exclusion of AI platforms, including Google’s Gemini, and warned that the six-deal minimum could leave many public-interest outlets without agreements. Former ACCC chair Allan Fels similarly said the scheme should extract more from platforms for journalism.

News Corp’s Australian chair Michael Miller said the changes weakened the incentive for platforms to strike fair deals, while the Coalition and Greens also criticised the proposal. Their opposition has left the legislation’s path through parliament unclear when it is introduced in coming weeks. Microsoft said it shared the government’s goal of a sustainable Australian news ecosystem and would continue engagement with government, publishers and industry stakeholders.