Bennett Jones
Valerie Hughes comments in CBA's National magazine on how members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to start working on a project they began in the 1990s—coming up with a uniform set of rules for global online commerce.
Since WTO members met in 1998 and agreed to continue a moratorium on charging customs duties on electronic transmissions, the global online market has exploded. Valerie says, “It’s been a long time coming. They’ve periodically renewed the moratorium, but the WTO community hasn’t been able to agree on much else.”
Valerie also comments on data localization requirements and the political pressure the organization is under today. She says that despite the challenges facing the WTO, “They’ll get something out of the e-commerce talks. It won’t be everything, but it will be something.”