{"id":41519,"date":"2019-02-02T17:58:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T12:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=41519"},"modified":"2019-02-02T17:58:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T12:28:43","slug":"india-must-join-wto-members-in-e-commerce-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-must-join-wto-members-in-e-commerce-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"India must join WTO members in e-commerce talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/editorials\/india-s-opposition-to-discussions-on-new-e-commerce-rules-can-be-disastrous\/story-J07xpUfAch2avIPcJMNyeP.html\"><strong>India must join WTO members in e-commerce talks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>economy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A group of 75 countries has launched negotiations on the trade-related aspects of e-commerce at the WTO<\/p>\n<p>Important Facts<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The announcement of the plan to start the e-commerce negotiations was made at the on-going World Economic Forum (WEF) meet in Davos.<\/li>\n<li>Developing countries such as India, South Africa and Argentina, have decided not to be part of the talks. India has also decided to not to be an observer either.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Negotiation agendas<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Free flow of data located on computer servers without data localization requirements<\/li>\n<li>Permanent moratorium on customs duties over existing temporary moratorium<\/li>\n<li>Non-disclosure of source code<\/li>\n<li>Prohibition of forced technology transfer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Reasons for India opted to stay out of E-commerce negotiation<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India refused to allow a negotiating mandate on e-commerce, understanding that it would mean abandoning the previously agreed position of preventing any new negotiations while the Doha Development Agenda is not concluded.<\/li>\n<li>This would create a new obstacle for e- commerce policy making which are still at nascent stage<\/li>\n<li>India wants a <strong>1998 agenda<\/strong> to be the basis of any conversation about e-commerce<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table width=\"577\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"577\"><strong>What it 1998 agenda<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u25cf\u00a0 The 1998 declaration on the \u2018moratorium\u2019 stated that \u201cmember countries will continue their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmission\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u25cf\u00a0 This \u2018moratorium\u2019 \u2013 which is \u2018temporary\u2019 in nature \u2014 gets extended at every MC, which is held once in two years.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Not to be part of any <strong>plurilateral talks<\/strong> because such initiatives strike at the very root of <strong>multilateralism<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>India&#8217;s <strong>huge data reserve<\/strong> and its <strong>impact on real economy<\/strong> and <strong>management of data without compromising privacy and security considerations<\/strong> are still in progress<\/li>\n<li><strong>RBI\u2019s recent policy mandating data localization<\/strong> through local servers would be challenged in such negotiation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Criticism <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s move is being criticised for undermining WTO process which is itself under unprecedented pressure.<\/li>\n<li>If India would be part of the negotiation it would be in better position to obstruct unwanted provisions of the deal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Status-quo on e-commerce should be maintained till developing countries understand what is <strong>at stake in the area of global e-commerce rule-making<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Provide weight to India similar stand on <strong>e-commerce issues at ongoing talk of RCEP<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India must join WTO members in e-commerce talks economy News A group of 75 countries has launched negotiations on the trade-related aspects of e-commerce at the WTO Important Facts The announcement of the plan to start the e-commerce negotiations was made at the on-going World Economic Forum (WEF) meet in Davos. Developing countries such as&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-must-join-wto-members-in-e-commerce-talks\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India must join WTO members in e-commerce talks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704848157},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}