YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Sixty-six members of the World Trade Organization have decided to forge ahead with a new path to bring an e-commerce agreement into force, with consensus among all WTO members still to be reached.
The plurilateral Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on e-commerce includes provisions on digital flows, electronic contracts and privacy and consumer protection. India has consistently blocked the plurilateral deal from being adopted into the WTO framework, arguing that such arrangements undermine consensus.
Now, members spanning 70 percent of global trade — including Australia, China, Britain and the European Union — will implement the agreement among themselves in their domestic legislation.
“Today, ministers decided to, let’s just move on,” South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo told POLITICO. “Don’t wait until everybody agrees on everything. Because time is of the essence.”
Han-koo labeled it a “practical approach,” under which “when the time comes more members join … and consensus is formed to integrate this into the WTO.” Meanwhile, however, the deal should be implemented “as soon as possible [where] members can reap the benefit,” he said.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said: “By moving forward with the E-commerce Agreement, participating economies are … demonstrating that the multilateral trading system can respond, and is responding, to new challenges.”
However, many delegates on the ground are not convinced.
“This is effectively an admission that the WTO is not capable of delivering multilateral or plurilateral agreements for the foreseeable future,” said Chris Southworth, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce UK. “Countries and blocs will have to negotiate large scale deals on their own.”
WTO members “have tried six times for integration of the [JSI] in the WTO. … It’s not possible anymore,” said Pascal Kerneis, managing director of the European Services Forum.
“So [members] looked for alternatives with a legal expert to say what about an international treaty which would use the WTO Secretariat as a depository of the signature,” he added. “And then hopefully, we will use a dispute settlement system of the WTO when a dispute occurs.”
Members will now proceed with their respective domestic procedures to implement the legislation.
Countries sidestep WTO deadlock to implement e-commerce deal
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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