E-com Capacity Building Framework opens at WTO Ministerial Conference

In a statement issued during the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva, they underlined the importance of developing global rules on e-commerce.

The ministers emphasised participants' commitment to agreeing on a global set of digital trade rules as rapidly as possible and to ensuring these rules help developing and least developed countries unlock the opportunities of the digital economy, WTO said in a press release.

The framework will help these countries better address digital trade barriers, they said.

It will offer a wide range of technical assistance, training and capacity building to support countries' participation in the e-commerce negotiations.

This includes a new Digital Advisory and Trade Assistance (DATA) Fund, to which Australia and Switzerland are contributing funding, as well as digital capacity-building support provided by Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and by Singapore through the Singapore-WTO Third Country Training Programme (TCTP).

The co-convenors noted calls from 105 trade associations from around the world for the continuation of the multilateral moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions. It is crucial that the initiative makes this practice permanent among participants in the negotiations, they said.

The ministers said they are committed to a timely conclusion of the negotiations and the co-convenors will issue a revised Consolidated Negotiating Text by the end of 2022.

There are currently 86 WTO members participating in the negotiations on e-commerce, accounting for over 90 per cent of global trade.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)