World Trade Organization (WTO) co-conveners from Japan, Australia and Singapore stressed the importance of maintaining the momentum made in negotiations during a WTO conference held from June 19 - 22 according to a press release published by the WTO on Thursday. The ambassadors called on their fellow e-commerce negotiators to carefully consider how the initiative could successfully secure substantial results by the end of the year, using the remaining four rounds of negotiations to find a compromise or agreement on various topics.
“We fully recognize there is a wide range of interests and concerns among members on these issues," said Japan Ambassador Kazuyuki Yamazaki. "However, I believe one of the virtues of the WTO is a broader membership. I would always encourage our members to endeavor to obtain a sense of commonalities that accommodates the different circumstances of the members.”
The conference negotiators also updated each other on progress made in finding landing zones on text proposals in fields such as cryptography, source code, privacy, "single windows", telecommunications and data flows and localization. Other sessions covered topics such as how general and security exceptions can be considered in a future agreement.
A session held by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) covered the importance of digital trade to industries and what it means for policymakers regarding legal reform, digital standards development and corporate commitments to a digital-first future. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shared the findings of a business questionnaire covering data localization measures and their implications in negotiations.
During the initial conference, Singapore Ambassador Hung Seng Tan paid tribute to the work and leadership of the small group discussion facilitators, saying that they helped the negotiations get closer to satisfactory conclusions on several issues.
Australia Ambassador George Mina closed the conference by stressing the importance of engaging with external stakeholders through the information sessions, saying that the meetings “highlighted what this initiative means to a wider audience outside of our rooms. It's been good to hear how important what we're doing is today.”