Geneva Seminar: Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce

This seminar, held on Wednesday January 29, 2020, focused on the Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce. It presented the history and developments in the exploratory talks and subsequent negotiations on electronic commerce among a group of WTO Members, a process that was launched at the organization’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2017.

The seminar involved presentations and discussions about the history and developments in e-commerce discussions, along with an update on the current state of play, as presented in a new publication prepared for the event.

Bringing together Geneva-based delegates from developing and least developing countries, it also looked at issues of particular interest to those countries, along with helping identify development-related issues that will be analysed in a subsequent paper.

The seminar was part of the TAF2+ Umbrella Grant Project on New WTO Issues, which covers the areas of investment facilitation, electronic commerce, and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and which will include national workshops, regional workshops, and the production of various papers, among related activities, in the lead-up to the WTO’s Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, this upcoming June. It also foresees further work post-MC12.

Please note that event attendance was by invitation only and that the discussions were held under the Chatham House rule.

This seminar and related materials have been produced with funding by UK aid from the UK Government. The Umbrella Grant is a project of the Trade and Investment Advocacy Fund (TAF2+), and implemented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, in consortium with CUTS, BKP Economic Advisors, and InterAnalysis.

Views expressed in the seminar and related publications are the participants’/authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect HM Government’s official positions or those of TAF2+.