Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of abbreviations
- Preface
- PART 1 Beyond regulatory control and multilateral flexibility: Gains from a cosmopolitan GATS
- PART 2 Unexplored economic, political and judicial dimensions of GATS
- PART 3 The limits of request–offer negotiations: Plurilateral and alternative approaches to services liberalisation
- PART 4 GATS case law: A first assessment
- PART 5 Market access, national treatment and domestic regulation
- PART 6 Unfinished business: Safeguard and subsidy disciplines for services
- PART 7 Challenges to the scope of GATS and cosmopolitan governance in services trade
- 22 Trade rules for the digital age
- 23 Comment: Digital trade: Technology versus legislators
- 24 How human rights violations nullify and impair GATS commitments
- 25 Comment: The instrumental rationale for protecting human rights in the context of trade services reform
- 26 In pursuit of the cosmopolitan vocation for trade: GATS and aviation services
- PART 8 Conclusion
- Index
- References
22 - Trade rules for the digital age
from PART 7 - Challenges to the scope of GATS and cosmopolitan governance in services trade
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of abbreviations
- Preface
- PART 1 Beyond regulatory control and multilateral flexibility: Gains from a cosmopolitan GATS
- PART 2 Unexplored economic, political and judicial dimensions of GATS
- PART 3 The limits of request–offer negotiations: Plurilateral and alternative approaches to services liberalisation
- PART 4 GATS case law: A first assessment
- PART 5 Market access, national treatment and domestic regulation
- PART 6 Unfinished business: Safeguard and subsidy disciplines for services
- PART 7 Challenges to the scope of GATS and cosmopolitan governance in services trade
- 22 Trade rules for the digital age
- 23 Comment: Digital trade: Technology versus legislators
- 24 How human rights violations nullify and impair GATS commitments
- 25 Comment: The instrumental rationale for protecting human rights in the context of trade services reform
- 26 In pursuit of the cosmopolitan vocation for trade: GATS and aviation services
- PART 8 Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
The rapid development of the Internet and other information communication technologies (ICTs) has led to the growing electronic cross-border delivery of services and digital products such as software. While regional trade agreements increasingly innovate as regards the cross-border delivery of services and the incorporation of chapters on e-commerce, on the multilateral level, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has not evolved since the end of the Uruguay Round.
This chapter reviews the progress in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements in securing liberal digital trade, i.e. electronic cross-border trade flows of data, services and digital products. The chapter's purpose is to start thinking about what digital trade rules may be needed today and in fifteen years from now. It focuses on the role of the multilateral trading system as regards digital trade flows actually taking place over information networks.
The first and the second parts of this chapter analyse developments with respect to electronically delivered products and services at the multilateral and bilateral trade levels. The third part raises the question of what digital trade rules are needed today and in 2015–2020.
Digital trade and the WTO: Maintaining relevance in the information age
Ten years ago it was recognised that the Internet offers unseen possibilities for digital trade and that offline trade barriers should not be replicated online. Consequently, in 1998 WTO Members issued a declaration on global e-commerce.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- GATS and the Regulation of International Trade in ServicesWorld Trade Forum, pp. 497 - 529Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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