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Digital Trade

62 posts

U.S. WTO E-commerce Proposal Reads Like USMCA

The United States has put forward a proposal for the recently launched e-commerce talks at the WTO. Bloomberg's Bryce Baschuk broke the news (and uploaded the document), noting there are many similarities to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Digital Trade Chapter (19). He's

China and the WTO E-Commerce Talks

In a recent communication related to the Joint Statement on Electronic Commerce in Davos, China said the following: 4.1. Along with the new opportunities provided by electronic commerce, issues such as cyber security, data safety and privacy are increasingly highlighted, bringing unprecedented security risks and regulatory challenges to Members.

Would the New NAFTA Reduce Policy Uncertainty?

This is a key passage from the ITC's USMCA report: Provisions That Reduce Policy Uncertainty for International Data Transfer, Cross-border Services, and Investment Many of the provisions in USMCA represent commitments to maintaining current regulatory conditions. In many of these cases, firms have operated under regulatory conditions

What Are Trade Rules on E-Commerce Supposed To Do?

Last week, over 70 countries announced that they will be moving forward with e-commerce talks at the WTO: We confirm our intention to commence WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce. We will seek to achieve a high standard outcome that builds on existing WTO agreements and

Facebook in China

From Bloomberg: Since 2009, China has blocked Facebook, the world's largest online social media network. This year, Renren, one of China's largest social networks, plans to raise $500 million on the New York Stock Exchange (NYX). So a Chinese social network can tap U.S. capital

Google Paper on Free Trade and the Internet

Last week, Google posted a paper entitled "Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information." There's a Technical Appendix (p. 17 of the document) called "Applicability of the WTO rules to restrictions on free flow of

The U.S. Position on Free Trade and the Internet

In Foreign Affairs, this is from Betsy Gelb and Emmanuel Yujuico (of IPE Zone): Another example of a failed effort to apply a largely American vision of technology to a non-U.S. cultural environment involves the Internet search giant Google. In January, after the e-mail accounts of Chinese

Dan Drezner on China's Great Firewall as a Trade Barrier

His full post: Well, there certainly are a surfeit of Sino - Americantiffsgoing on at the moment . Over at Reason, Ron Bailey offers an intriguing solution to one of these problems -- use the WTO as a crowbar to bring down the Great Firewall of China : When China joined the World Trade

Investment Treaty Arbitration and Censorship

From Luke Peterson: There are growing signs that investment treaty protections – while rarely discussed in media or human rights law circles - may be surprisingly useful in some cases of repression or censorship of foreign-owned media. While there is growing debate as to the uses of World Trade Organization agreements

Chander on International Trade and Internet Freedom

Anupam Chander has posted International Trade and Internet Freedom on SSRN. From the abstract: Can trade liberalization serve the cause of political liberalization in authoritarian states? In this short essay, I suggest that trade law might bolster political freedoms by liberalizing Internet trade. Trade law puts pressure on state repression