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In March 2021, the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the UK Trade Policy Observatory organised a conference, hosted by CEPR, to discuss new directions for digital trade policy. This new CEPR eBook, edited and introduced by Ingo Borchert and L. Alan Winters from the University of Sussex, brings together key insights from the papers presented and assesses the growing challenges for trade policymaking that the increase in digital trade, including digitally enabled services, are creating worldwide. Leading experts from around the world discuss new directions for digital trade policy, including concrete steps to recognise and evaluate barriers to digital trade as well as strategic guidance on instruments and approaches to tackle current and future impediments.
The rapid evolution of digital technology has created opportunities for growth but has brought with it many complications, including increased privacy concerns, the international nature of data sharing, and the cross-cutting nature of regulations across numerous branches of domestic law. Governments have often found effective policymaking difficult in this new and shifting environment.
Chapters of the book point towards improved ways of collecting information on the policies affecting digital trade. They highlight linkages to other areas of law that are vital for digital trade policymaking, and they discuss the broad array of potential barriers to digital trade that might arise in the future. Strong international cooperation across numerous fields is seen as key to solving the political and practical challenges. What is evident is that, while the obstacles remain substantial, the rewards cannot be over-estimated.
