The World Trade Organization (WTO), and the international community have a collective responsibility to help members harness the full potential of the digital economy for economic growth, job creation and trade diversification, said Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at a recent workshop held at the WTO on e-commerce.
At the event, WTO members heard from international organisations on their work on various e-commerce topics and on programmes aimed at helping developing economies benefit from digital trade.
The workshop was held under the Work Programme on e-commerce as a follow-up to the 12th Ministerial Conference decision to reinvigorate the Programme, particularly regarding its development dimension.
The workshop provided an opportunity for WTO members to exchange views with international organisations on cross-cutting issues under the Work Programme identified by members in the past few months. In particular, the workshop looked at work carried out at the international level on consumer protection, the digital divide, the moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions and legal, regulatory frameworks on e-commerce.
Okonjo-Iweala noted that members are engaging substantively on broad e-commerce-related issues with a development focus.
“These discussions are important to better understand the challenges and opportunities of digital trade,” she said.
She noted the dramatic growth in services delivered across borders via digital networks. The WTO estimates that global exports of digitally delivered services grew by 8.1% per year between 2005 and 2022, much higher than the 5.6% growth registered for goods exports.
The Director General said: “In 2022, the value of exports of these services, which cover everything from streaming games to consulting services provided by video, reached USD 3.82 trillion — worth 12% of total goods and services trade, up from 8% a decade earlier. With the comparatively slow recovery of tourism and other services requiring cross-border movement of people, digitally delivered services have increased their footprint in global services trade. Last year represented 54% of total global services exports.”
