Malaysia supports e-commerce initiative in WTO

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Dec 13, 2017 joined 69 other World Trade Organization (WTO) members in reaffirming the importance of global electronic commerce (e-commerce) and opportunities it creates for inclusive trade and development in the WTO.

The other countries who supported this initiative are Albania, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, European Union, Guatemala, Hong Kong, China, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Republic of Kuwait, Lao PDR, Liechtenstein, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Republic of Montenegro, Myanmar, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Russian Federation, Singapore, Switzerland, Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, Turkey, Ukraine, US and Uruguay.

The like-minded group issued a joint statement to express their goal to advance e-commerce work in the WTO to enhance the benefits of e-commerce for businesses and consumers internationally. This is in recognition of the important role of the WTO in promoting open, transparent, non-discriminatory and predictable regulatory environment in facilitating trade.

The group will initiate exploratory work towards future WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce. Participation shall be open to all WTO members and will be without prejudice to participants’ position in future negotiations. The first meeting by the group is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2018.

E-commerce can help lower barriers to entry and operating costs for businesses, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises. With the recently launched Digital Free Trade Zone initiative and the National E-commerce Strategic Roadmap, Malaysia has already institutionalised key trade facilitation measures to boost cross-border exports by SMEs including introducing less burdensome documentation requirements and processes, as well as providing reduced time for cargo clearance to enable SMEs to integrate into the global value chain.

Malaysia views the work programme in WTO as an important impetus to facilitate further integration of small businesses into the global trading system. — Bernama