On 26 July 2024, Australia, Japan and Singapore announced that 81 countries had consented to the release of a draft agreement that, once adopted, would facilitate global electronic commerce. This was the most notable achievement since formal negotiations began via the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 2019. The negotiating group debating how best to harmonise digital-trade rules eventually grew to 91 countries and territories. The United States was among the ten that did not sign off on the draft, which was ‘due to domestic consultations and considerations’, as noted in a footnote.
At the time of the announcement, Washington released a statement from Ambassador María Pagán, the chief US envoy to the WTO, noting that ‘the current text falls short and more work is needed, including with respect to the essential security exception’. The type of security exception favoured by the US would allow signatories to bypass the terms of the agreement if following them would harm national security (by, for example, exposing sensitive software source code). In late 2023, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that Washington would withdraw its support for key items on the agenda of the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on E-Commerce, as the initiative is called, so US abstention did not come as a surprise.
It will take further negotiations for the parties to reach a comprehensive agreement that can be implemented, a process that will likely take years, but US resistance casts some doubt on whether a broad global push to reform long-outdated digital-trade rules can succeed. Some had thought that the administration of US President Joe Biden would be able to resolve its major concerns regarding regulatory autonomy and security in 2024, but with less than five months remaining before the inauguration of a new president, this now appears unlikely.
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