Azmeh, S. & Foster, C. G. 2024. Embedded Liberalism in the Digital Age: Examining the E-Commerce Joint Statement Initiative in the WTO, Paper presented at SASE 2024, Limerick, Dublin, July
[Paper in progress]
Abstract
Trade governance has been key in determining the “rules of the game” of economies and shaping pathways of economic development. The rapid expansion of the digital economy has driven intense debates on the role of the trade regime in digital governance. The push by advanced digital economies to incorporate digital rules in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was met with resistance from developing countries, which coincided with the expansion of digital rules in regional and bilateral agreements.
Debates on digital trade governance have been dominated by supporters of liberal digital regimes with limited flexibilities on the one hand, and opponents of any digital rules at a multilateral level on the other hand. In this paper, examining the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on e-commerce launched in 2017, we build on recent calls for “re-globalization” to explore how the idea of an “embedded liberal” compromise that balances the need for international harmonisation with flexibilities for digital development align to these digital trade rules.
We argue that international harmonisation is not inherently harmful to digital development and that a developmental multilateral compromise can maintain the flexibilities for digital development policies and limit more restrictive rules dictated through highly asymmetrical unilateral, bilateral, or regional forums.