Digital Trade
How the global trade in digital services, data, and e-commerce is creating new economic opportunities and new trade conflicts.
The Digital Trade Landscape
Digital trade, encompassing cross-border data flows, e-commerce, digital services, and the international trade in AI and software, has become one of the fastest-growing segments of the global economy. The World Trade Organization estimates that digitally delivered services exports exceeded $4 trillion annually by the early 2020s. Yet the rules governing digital trade remain fragmented, contested, and in many cases nonexistent.
The WTO's existing rules were designed for an era of physical goods and have struggled to adapt to digital commerce. A moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions has been renewed at every WTO Ministerial Conference since 1998, but faces growing opposition from developing countries that want the revenue such tariffs could generate. Negotiations on e-commerce rules have been underway since 2019 but remain deadlocked on key issues like data localization, source code access, and algorithmic transparency.
