The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded its 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in the early hours of March 30 in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde, with marked progress in the push to fully implement its agreement on digital trade.
The MC14, which started on March 26, brought together an estimated 4,000 delegates including trade ministers from the organization’s 166 member states.
On the final day of the deliberations, discussions at ministerial level on the digital trade agreement and other issues related the WTO’s reform agenda, dragged on for many hours as members disagreed on several issues, with the goal of finding common ground and a sustainable path forward for global business.
Ahead of the ministerial debates, however, 66 member states of the organization that make up 70 percent of global trade had, a day earlier, agreed to the adoption of a pathway to bring into force the WTO Agreement on Electronic Commerce, as the instrument is officially labelled.
Before the agreement actually gets approved by all member states and incorporated into the WTO’s legal framework, it is expected to function under what the body describes as “interim arrangements.”
Already, this is considered a major step towards the full adoption of the document which the WTO described as “the world’s first baseline set of global digital trade rules.” It is also seen as a key step forward given that digital transactions contribute over 60 percent of global GDP.
In remarks after the adoption of the pathway, the WTO Director General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called digital trade an exciting frontier for driving economic growth and job creation.
“By moving forward with the E-Commerce Agreement, participating economies are helping to establish a shared regulatory framework that can lower costs and unlock new opportunities. They are also demonstrating that the multilateral trading system can respond, and is responding, to new challenges and changing economic circumstances,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
The shared regulatory framework will presumably include alignment on KYC and AML rules, if not specifically on cross-border digital identity verification. The E-Commerce Agreement also comes at a time when Africa is working to operationalize its single market ambition, with secure, safe and interoperable digital public infrastructure (DPI) seen as a cornerstone in realizing that objective.
A new Cambridge DPI Regulatory Programme was also launched weeks ago in help coordinate the regulatory alignment that can help turn digital ID and DPI gains into financial opportunity.
Okonjo-Iweala added that with that vital step already taken, there is need for “continued cooperation” to ensure that “digital trade remains open and predictable, and that its benefits are shared across economies at all levels of development.”
Japan was one of the co-convenors of the pathway adoption. Its State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yamada Kenji, said it was “a historic step in implementing global digital trade rules.”
Trade ministers of Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, The Gambia, Mauritius, Peru, Singapore, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK, as well as the EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, who also participated in the adoption process, all described it as a major win for the establishment of a global framework that defines how digital trade should happen.
To the WTO, having operational rules for digital trade will “significantly bolster stability and predictability for businesses and consumers around the world,” and “unlock new opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises by reducing regulatory barriers and enhancing access to global markets.”
Article Topics
AML | cross border identity verification | digital public infrastructure | ecommerce | KYC | regulation
