October 29, 2020
Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) participating in the negotiation of rules on e-commerce shared updates on the work done to streamline the negotiating text at a plenary meeting on October 23.
WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce were launched in Davos in January 2019 with the participation of 76 members. The number of participating members now stands at 86. Participating members seek to achieve a high-standard outcome that builds on existing WTO agreements and frameworks with the participation of as many WTO members as possible.
In this latest meeting members were encouraged members to propose constructive solutions and show flexibility in an effort to deliver a consolidated negotiating text by December this year.
Facilitators of small group discussions reported on the work done in between plenary meetings to further streamline text proposals in the areas of spam, source code, open government data, trade facilitation in goods, services market access, electronic signatures and authentication, and online consumer protection.
The next plenary session will be on November 5.