The co-conveners of the talks - Australia, Japan and Singapore - said the consolidated negotiating text on e-commerce reflects encouraging progress made so far, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said.
La Press release The report of the multilateral organization, released today (14.12.2020), also notes that the initiative remains on track to achieve significant progress at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, scheduled for next year.
"We will intensify our work in the coming months to further reduce the gap and identify possible landing zones," the statement added, looking ahead.
The number of participants in the e-commerce initiative amounts to 86 WTO members, representing more than 90 per cent of world trade and representing all major geographical regions and levels of development.
Guided by WTO objectives, negotiations have made progress, seeking significant benefits for businesses and consumers. Highlights include good progress made in small groups on topics such as electronic signatures and digital authentication, paperless trade, customs duties on electronic transmissions, open government data, open Internet access, consumer protection, spam and source code, among others.
Trade ministers from 83 countries, in talks on rules for e-commerce, agreed to develop a consolidated negotiating text by the time the WTO holds its 2021th ministerial conference in June 12.
Singapore, Japan and Australia are leading the negotiations on e-commerce, which is the future of global trade. These countries will modernize the WTO rules to address new issues and needs in the face of a rapidly evolving digital landscape following the Covid-19 pandemic. This will benefit large and small players alike, by further narrowing differences and finding a possible common ground.
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