World Trade Organization Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce

E-commerce, as defined by the WTO, is the production, distribution, marketing and/or sale of goods and services by electronic means. It can cover everything from the purchase and sale of merchandise goods and digital content via online platforms to any other trade in goods or services facilitated by electronic means. With information technologies having eliminated distances between suppliers and customers, e-commerce is now a widely used platform and alternative for doing business across all sectors of the economy and for conducting international trade. E-commerce is an important part of the daily experiences and functionality of businesses and consumers across the global economy. The growing digitalization of trade and commerce has created significant new opportunities to help businesses and consumers.

The WTO has an important role to play in establishing a set of global trade rules to underpin the digital economy. In recognition of the growing importance of electronic commerce and digital trade – and the need for global trade rules in this area – Canada and other WTO members issued a joint statement at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in December 2017 to begin discussions towards future WTO negotiations on the trade-related aspects of e-commerce.

Since March 2018, discussions and negotiations have been open to any WTO member who wishes to attend or participate. In January 2019, at the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, officials representing 76 WTO members announced their intention to launch WTO negotiations on e-commerce in a further joint statement.

Canada is a knowledge and service economy and has an interest in establishing a strong, rules-based framework for e-commerce and digital trade. Canada has been an active participant since the launch of these negotiations. In May of 2019 Canada tabled a text proposal covering a range of areas and a concept paper titled “Building Confidence and Trust in Digital Trade”. In June 2019, Canada tabled a text proposal as a basis for discussion on the structure of the Agreement, incorporating elements of a May 2019 concept paper. Other WTO members have also tabled text proposals on issues of importance to them, which formed the basis of negotiating text.

Covering the following areas: enabling electronic commerce, openness and electronic commerce, trust and digital trade, alongside several cross-cutting issues. A future WTO agreement on e-commerce is expected to establish a more open, transparent and predictable global digital trading framework in which Canadian businesses and consumers can operate.

• WTO Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce