General Council Meeting
December 9-11, 2019
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Statement by India
work programme on electronic commerce
- statement by the chair
- reports by the Chairs of the council for trade in goods and of the council for trade in services (G/C/66 and S/C/58)
- work programme and a moratorium on electronic commerce - communication from Chad on behalf of the LDC group (WT/GC/W/787)
- work programme and moratorium on electronic commerce - communications from Australia; Canada; Chile; Colombia; Costa Rica; Georgia; Guatemala; Hong Kong, China; Iceland; Israel; republic of Korea; Mexico; New Zealand; Norway; Panama; Paraguay; Singapore; Switzerland; Thailand and Uruguay (WT/GC/W/782/rev.2, wt/GC/w/792)
Item B
No comments
Item C
We thank the LDC group for their proposal, seeking Members’ engagement under the Work Programme on some key challenges identified by them in the context of electronic commerce.
As the digital revolution is still unfolding, India has on a number of occasions reiterated that it is important to first understand the complex and multi-faceted dimensions of issues related to e-commerce. We still do not comprehend the full implications of effects of e-commerce on competition and market structures, issues related to transfer of technology, automation and robotization and its impact on traditional jobs and the gaps in policy and regulating frameworks in developing countries. Therefore, India has been a proponent of strengthening our multilateral work under the non-negotiating and exploratory work programme on e-commerce.
Under this multilateral WP and with the intention of understanding the implications of the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, India along with South Africa has introduced two submissions in July 2018 and in June 2019.
We therefore support the Communication from Chad on behalf of the LDC group. We also suggest that all aspects concerning the ecommerce moratorium, being cross cutting issues, should be deliberated in the GC.
Item D
Statement being finalised
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