Trade ministers from Australia, Japan and Singapore announced substantial progress in the negotiations on the Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday 14 December. These three countries are behind the initiative, which currently has the support of 86 WTO members.
Australia, Japan and Singapore reported that they had reached a consensus on eight articles of the text, covering: - online consumer protection; authentication and electronic signatures; - unsolicited commercial messages; - the opening up of public data; - transparency; - dematerialised trade; - open access to the Internet.
According to the three countries’ ambassadors to the WTO, the results already achieved will “deliver important benefits including boosting consumer confidence and supporting businesses trading online”.
“Thanks to the good progress achieved so far, we’re on track to achieve convergence on the majority of issues in the negotiations by the end of 2022”, said Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)