Geneva Trade Week: Digital Trade and Services Trade – Are They Increasingly the Same?

Geneva Trade Week;  Sept 28 - 2 Oct 2020

On behalf of the Australian Services Roundtable, TIISA Network Director Jane Drake-Brockman moderated the opening session in the Digital Trade stream on Monday 28 September.

Trade is increasingly going digital, blurring the distinctions between goods and services, commerce and e-commerce. Different regions of the world are adapting in their own way and the policy choices they make impact the speed of this transformation, channel its benefits, and sometimes hold back progress.

The session offered practical policy guidance on how governments can use their toolkits to navigate the complexities of digitization and the increasingly global services trade.

Key questions:

• In what ways has digitalisation changed how companies engage in international trade?
• What kind of policies will spread the benefits of digital trade more inclusively, especially in Africa?
• What are the barriers to digitally-enabled services, and how can they be addressed?
• What’s needed for a global baseline agreement on the free flow of data?

Watch the full webinar here