Meeting under the chairmanship of the United Kingdom on 31 March, G7 trade ministers stressed the importance of facilitating e-commerce in the coming years. They pledged to “redouble their efforts” to advance the joint declaration initiative on e-commerce at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Their goal is to make substantial progress by the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, which will take place at the end of 2021.
Ministers consider that data, goods and services should be able to flow and cross borders without obstacles. To this end, they agreed to develop a set of key principles during the UK Presidency to “guide the approach to e-commerce”.
At the meeting, which was attended by EU Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovksis and WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, G7 Ministers also stressed the urgency of reforming the WTO and modernising world trade (see EUROPE 12690/19). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)