Digital technologies have affected international trade relations and what is traded across borders, giving rise to digital trade. Digital trade has become an important part of international trade discussions, requiring specific policies and measures at different regulatory levels. Together these are referred to as digital trade governance.
Good digital trade governance aims to enable cross-border trade, innovation and market access in the digital economy. However, digital technologies are constantly evolving while regulators are still assessing their effect on trade. Digital trade poses challenges because of the different interests and approaches taken by countries in regulating this new area of trade and the speed of new developments.
The UK has negotiated some of the most advanced international rules on digital trade, such as the ones in the UK-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement. The UK approach prioritises open sharing of data, cooperation in regulating emerging digital technologies, digital facilitation of trade, and innovation. The goal is to balance the benefits of digital trade for UK businesses and the economy with the need to protect consumer rights, privacy and competitive fairness.
Countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) aim to establish global rules to remove regulatory differences and enable a fair, secure and open environment for digital trade. This is the goal of the WTO’s joint initiative on ecommerce, although not all the WTO membership support it and not all the relevant issues have been agreed on yet.
Source: UK Parliament