Making e-commerce “faster, cheaper, fairer and more secure”. These are the objectives of the agreement that should result from the negotiations conducted since 2018 by some 90 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This text should be presented this Friday, July 26, during a closed-door meeting at the WTO headquarters in Geneva. Its scope has already been announced as “revolutionary”.
Among the measures included in the text are the fight against spam, the recognition of electronic signatures and contracts, the protection of online consumers, and the digitalization of customs procedures. “In many cases, it will no longer be necessary to print forms and submit them to customs – a slow, expensive and outdated way of working,” argues on his website The British government estimates that the UK’s GDP will increase by £24.2 billion – or around €28.7 billion – as a result of the agreement coming into force.
Furthermore, the introduction of a new moratorium on customs duties on electronic transactions is a key provision of the agreement. And for good reason: the moratorium in force since 1998 within the WTO is supposed to end in 2026. The entry into force of the agreement will thus make it possible to “permanently prohibit customs duties on digital content”, the British authorities emphasize in their press release.
Towards a homogenization of regulations
In general, this agreement would automatically result in the homogenization of regulations. Because if regional or bilateral trade agreements include provisions on e-commerce, “there is no set of common global rules” for the sector, explains the British Minister of Trade, Jonathan Reynolds. This is why, according to him, this text would be “a big step forward in remedying this situation and ensuring that British companies benefit from it”.
In its wake, Singapore’s ambassador to the WTO assured that it “would constitute the very first set of basic rules applicable to digital trade”, and would contribute “to the development of electronic commerce by improving predictability and legal certainty in a context of increasing regulatory fragmentation”. The agreement would also have the effect of accelerating the generalization of e-commerce in developing countries.
The application could be delayed
However, its effective implementation may be delayed, as it could take several years before all stakeholders agree to sign it, and for it to enter into force. The American ambassador to the WTO, Maria Pagan, told journalists that the text “still needs to be reworked”. She mentioned in particular certain questions that remain unresolved, such as the exceptions relating to security.
Furthermore, for the text to become part of the WTO legal framework, all member states of the organisation must give their green light, even if some are not. signatories of the agreement. An essential step that could take several years. Especially since some countries view with great disfavor the multiplication of plurilateral agreements that are then integrated into the WTO. This is particularly the case for India and South Africa.
There is, however, a workaround: linking the agreement to another organisation. The problem is that countries would not be able to benefit from the WTO’s dispute settlement system, which is considered a pillar of stability for the organisation.