CCIA Applauds Trade Liberalization Efforts; Calls for Renewed Focus on E-Commerce
The Computer & Communications Industry Association
(CCIA) applauds the recent renewed focus on removal of barriers to trade in
services at the WTO and the commitments made at the December 2011 Ministerial
to accelerate work on electronic commerce. CCIA is particularly
encouraged to see the exploration by WTO Members of new approaches for reaching
an agreement.
If the world trade system and the WTO want to remain
relevant in the digital age, they must seize this initiative. We are encouraged that many WTO members
have seen fit to remedy the sad fact that the biggest trade enabler
to the global economy – the Internet – is one of the least liberalized. Our inherently global industry badly
needs an agreement.
Given that the major WTO agreement governing the worldwide
trade in services, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), could not
envision the Internet or what it was to become, these talks are well
overdue. According to one
estimate, the barriers to the cross border provision of computer and
information services are the equivalent of a tariff of nearly
30 percent on our industry.
Given the vital and rapidly growing importance of Internet
commerce to people and enterprises around the world, CCIA urges trade
negotiators not to allow a commitment to any particular modality of agreement stand
in the way of actually reaching an agreement on services liberalization.
“Internet services” are what create economic and
productivity multipliers for computers, smart phones and tablets. In fact, they are the biggest single
selling point of modern electronic devices. Can you imagine a smartphone or a computer today that did
not have access to Internet search, social media and business collaboration
tools?
Increasingly, businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, rely
upon Internet services to connect with customers and sell their products. However, these inherently global services
enjoy few of the protections against trade restrictive measures that have been
achieved for the hardware they run on.
Negotiators must seek to further liberalize trade in all components of
the global IT ecosystem, including hardware, software and services.
Although parties should be as expansive and ambitious as
possible in reaching a twenty-first century services agreement, at the end of
the day it is paramount that an agreement is reached. As the world’s two largest markets for
services, a particular onus rests on the European Union and the United States
to demonstrate leadership and collaborate on a pragmatic proposal for ICT
Services liberalization.
