This seminar, being held on Wednesday January 29, 2020, will focus on the Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce. It will present 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 will involve presentations and discussions about the history and developments in e-commerce discussions, along with an update on the current state of play. Bringing together Geneva-based delegates from developing and least developing countries, it will also look 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 is 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 is by invitation only and that the discussions will be 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 of 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+.