Council of EU Adopts Mandate for WTO Negotiations on E-Commerce
The Council of the European Union said in a press release on Monday that it has adopted a supplementary negotiating mandate to get access to e-commerce negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO)
During the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, the European Union and 48 WTO member states decided to launch negotiations to establish global rules for the e-commerce industry.
"The Council today adopted a negotiating mandate to enable the Commission to participate in plurilateral negotiations on electronic commerce ... The aim of the negotiations is to put in place international rules encouraging global e-commerce, facilitating the operations of businesses, in particular SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises], strengthening consumers' trust in the online environment and creating new opportunities to promote inclusive and sustainable growth and development," the press release said.
The new adopted mandate supplemented an already existing mandate for the Doha Development Agenda that lacked the EU position on trade-related aspects of e-commerce, the press release added.
According to the council, initial negotiating proposals were presented in the WTO by the European Union in late April and discussed from May 13-15 in Geneva during a round of formal talks.