E-Commerce for Development: Where Can Trade Deals Boost the Enabling Environment?

E-commerce holds promise for delivering new business opportunities and inclusive trade. But it has not yet lifted all boats. This session explored the extent to which the trade policy community can contribute to improving the enabling environment for cross-border e-commerce and, as a priority, ensuring this works for development and small business. Participants discussed what specific issues — from electronic payments to logistics — would most benefit from trade policy interventions as well as where public-private collaboration can help. This session was organised under the E15 Initiative, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, and was moderated by Kimberley Botwright, Policy Analyst, Digital Trade, International Trade & Investment at the World Economic Forum.

The biennial Trade and Sustainable Development Symposium (TSDS), held alongside the WTO ministerial conference for over a decade, is the leading multi-stakeholder platform for intellectual enquiry and dialogue on sustainable development and the global trade and investment system. The TSDS – organised by ICTSD in partnership with the Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC), the Inter–American Development Bank (BID), Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI) and Bolsa de Cereales with the support and collaboration of the Ministerio de Producción, Presidencia de la Nación, Argentina – acts as an inclusive platform outside of the WTO negotiating setting for sharing ideas, engaging in dialogue, and influencing trade policy negotiations. Drawing in participants from government, business and civil society, the Symposium helps to maintain and elaborate a global vision of sustainable development in trade and investment policymaking.