Trade (1999 - 2003)
The GBDe will continue its efforts to ensure e-commerce issues are considered during the continuing negotiation of trade agreements. In particular, the GBDe is seeking to ensure that e-commerce is considered an integral part of existing WTO agreements and that it should, as a minimum, receive trade treatment no less favorable than like products delivered in physical form. The GBDe is also investigating the highly complex issue of the classification of goods and services, and also the identification of trade barriers to e-commerce.
The development of an international trade framework for e-commerce is one of the primary objectives for the GBDe. The members of the GBDe believe that e-commerce has the potential to bring the benefits of increased productivity, opportunity and economic growth to all countries that are prepared to open markets and harness this new means of conducting international trade.
The GBDe has agreed on four basic GBDe principles relating to trade were developed. These are:
- Governments should recognize that existing World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements - namely the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) - apply to e-commerce.
- Governments should ensure that electronically delivered products, at a minimum, receive trade treatment no less favorable than like products delivered in physical form.
- Governments should refrain from creating new or discriminatory trade barriers to e-commerce.
- When legitimate policy objectives require domestic regulations that affect e-commerce, governments should ensure that such regulations are least trade restrictive, nondiscriminatory, transparent and promote an open market environment.
- See also these PDF downloads:
- GBDe Statement on the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference
- Letter sent to trade ministers/officials, September 2003
EN PDF 93KB - Trade/WTO: Advocacy Report
- GBDe Recommendations (Brussels), October 2002
EN PDF 141KB - Trade/WTO
- GBDe Recommendations (Tokyo), September 2001
EN PDF 204KB - Trade
- GBDe Recommendations (Miami), September 2000
EN PDF 99KB - Taxation and Tariffs
- GBDe Recommendations (Paris), September 1999
EN PDF 97KB
