Released on 26 July, the text of a new agreement on electronic commerce follows five years of negotiations among a large and diverse group of World Trade Organization (WTO) Members, jointly convened by Australia, Japan and Singapore.

The next phase of this work includes integrating these foundational rules into the broader WTO system.

Once in force the rules would be relevant to issues such as helping protect Australians online, and supporting Australian businesses in accessing new markets, simplifying transactions, creating improved certainty and lowering costs for online trade.

Australian industry representatives have welcomed these developments. President of the Australian Services Roundtable, Holly Dorber, highlighted Australia's "dedicated global leadership to launch the WTO into the digital age".

"For all businesses, and especially Australian small- and medium-sized enterprises, this deal will reduce the cost and complexity of international commerce and support trust and security for consumers."

The Global Services Coalition and Asia Pacific Services Coalition said that a deal on e-commerce "will be the defining 21st century moment for the multilateral trading system and not a minute too soon for global economic development, MSME revival and jobs growth."

Australia continues to encourage all WTO members to join this pioneering baseline of digital trade rules with global reach. The released text can be found at https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=q:/INF/ECOM/87.pdf&Open=True [PDF 297 KB]

Find out more about digital trade and the digital economy on the DFAT website.