digital services

Designing Next Generation Trade Agreements for the Digital Economy

Designing Next Generation Trade Agreements for the Digital Economy

From a business perspective, getting an agreement on digital rules among the widest number of countries is best.  Such a decision will create conditions for improved stability, lowered risk and reduced compliance costs in engaging in trade and business everywhere, with similar or identical rules and regulations in place.  But there is a trade-off between getting an agreement with many parties and getting an agreement in a timeframe that businesses would view as helpful.  While governments can operate in cycles of years, companies are concerned about results every quarter.  This mismatch between expectations and timing is particularly acute in the digital world, where business developments are often made at light speed.  Governments are sometimes struggling to even understand the ideas and principles of digital trade and are faced with particular challenges in crafting sensible regulations. Digital trade was largely unregulated, or lightly addressed, in most places up until a few short years ago.  With few exceptions, firms were free to do whatever they wanted in the digital space, as long as they did not violate existing non-digital rules.  Governments tried to adapt physical rules, in some instances, to the digital realm.  This situation has grown increasingly untenable.  The exponential growth rates of the digital economy means that governments cannot go on trying to shoehorn analogue rules to digital products and services.   So how should governments manage the increasingly important digital world?  There are at least four broad responses so far.

The Power of Digital Services for Consumers

The imposition of restrictions on the movement of information, particularly financial data or personal data, also risks changing the landscape.  I could not have booked my hotels or paid for my car rental, if I had been unable to move my own data across borders.  Yet governments are increasingly interested in stopping exactly these types of transactions.  Not simply to keep me from traveling, of course, but a collateral impact of many poorly thought-through policies will be to hamper the freedom of consumers to operate globally and for firms to attract customers from anywhere.  Even restrictions on the location of data servers could impact my ability to book hotels in Greece.  It could easily drive up the costs of delivering services and make it too costly for some smaller firms, like tiny hotels in Arachova, to advertise on some sites.