Australia among 80 countries to sign e-commerce deal – Finance

Some 80 countries have reached agreement on rules to govern global digital trade, including recognizing electronic signatures and protecting against online fraud, but have failed to convince the United States to support the initiative.

After five years of negotiations, coordinators from Australia, Japan and Singapore have released what they described as a “stabilised text”, which the European Union hailed as “historic news” and the UK as “groundbreaking”.

“We have negotiated the first global rules on digital trade,” wrote EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on social network X.

The UK said the agreement would require all participants to digitalise customs documents and processes, recognise electronic documents and electronic signatures, and introduce legal safeguards against online fraud and misleading product claims.

The text states that the parties will strive to reduce spam and protect personal data, as well as offer support to the least developed countries.

Ninety-one of the 166 members of the World Trade Organization took part in the negotiations, including China, Canada, Argentina, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

The United States said the new text was an important step forward but still fell short of expectations and required further work, including on the formulation of exceptions based on essential security interests.

“We look forward to working with affected members to find solutions to all remaining issues and bring the negotiations to a timely conclusion,” Maria Pagan, U.S. ambassador to the WTO, said in a statement.

A Geneva-based trade source said some other countries, such as Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey, also raised concerns, adding that they were mostly related to minor issues.

Participants may still have difficulty making their agreement a formal WTO agreement, since that would require consensus from all WTO countries. India and South Africa have been particularly critical of agreements that do not cover all members.