The agreement is set to benefit consumers and businesses involved in digital trade, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and will play a pivotal role in supporting digital transformation among participating members, a WTO release said.
Participants will proceed with their domestic processes to integrate the outcome of negotiations in the WTO legal framework.
After five years of talks under the WTO Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce, participants recently reached a new phase, achieving stabilised text on the Agreement on Electronic Commerce.
The agreement is set to benefit digital trade consumers and businesses, especially MSMEs, and will play a pivotal role in supporting digital transformation.
At the 11th Ministerial Conference held in Buenos Aires in December 2017, a group of 71 WTO members agreed to initiate exploratory work towards future WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of e-commerce.
In January 2019, 76 WTO members confirmed in a joint statement their intention to commence these negotiations.
“We reaffirm the importance of supporting developing and least-developed country Members in implementing the Agreement on Electronic Commerce by addressing their identified needs including through implementation periods, technical assistance and capacity building support,” WTO said.
Taking note of the evolving nature of cross-border electronic commerce and digital technology, participants recognise that some issues of importance to digital trade have not been addressed in this text, and will be discussed in future negotiations.
The European Commission welcomed the publication of the text of the WTO E-commerce Agreement. The European Union (EU) played an active role in the negotiation of these first global rules on digital trade, the Commission said in a release.
The EU and other participants of the initiative will take necessary steps towards integrating the agreement into the WTO rulebook, which will require consensus by all WTO members.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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