Maximizing the Opportunities of the Internet for International Trade

The last decade has witnessed remarkable developments in the digital economy, creating new opportunities for cross-border trade and investment and the ongoing emergence of novel and disruptive businesses models. At the same time, the Internet is transforming how goods and services are produced, delivered, and consumed both domestically and internationally. The transformation in the character of cross-border trade in goods and services, which are increasingly embedded, is also resulting from global value chains, made possible by the flow of immense amounts of data across borders. This has given rise to a growing overlap between the trade regime and other areas of domestic regulatory intervention—notably with respect to privacy and security. The present paper examines the challenges and opportunities that growth of the digital economy creates for trade and development. It seeks to identify supportive trade policy measures to enhance the benefits of digitization globally as well as avenues to establish regulatory practices that permit cross-border data flows and improved regulatory cooperation among countries.