Digital trade and digital technical standards

Abstract

There is increasing impetus for stronger cooperation between the US, EU and UK on digital technology governance. Drivers of this trend include the economic incentives arising from opportunities for digital trade; the ambition for digital technology governance to be underpinned by shared values, including support for a democratic, open and global internet; and the need to respond to geopolitical competition, especially from China. — Two specific areas of governance in which there is concrete potential to collaborate, and in which policymakers have indicated significant ambitions to do so, are digital trade and digital technical standards. — To leverage strategic opportunities for digital trade, the US, EU and UK need to continue identifying and promoting principles based on shared values and agendas, and demonstrate joint leadership at the global level,including in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on e-commerce. — Policy actors in the US, EU and UK should work individually and collectively to build on the latest generation of digital trade agreements. This will help to promote closer alignment on digital rules and standards, and support the establishment of more up-to-date models for innovation and governance. — Collaborating on digital technical standards, particularly those underlying internet governance and emerging technologies, offers the US, EU and UK strategic opportunities to build a vision of digital technology governance rooted in multi-stakeholder participation and democratic values. This can provide a strong alternative to standards proposals such as China’s ‘New IP’ system. — Policy actors should seek to expand strategic cooperation on standards development among the US, EU and UK, among like-minded countries, and among states that are undecided on the direction of their technology governance, including in the Global South. They should also take practical steps to incorporate the views and expertise of the technology industry, the broader private sector, academia and civil society. — By promoting best-practice governance models that are anticipatory, dynamic and flexible, transatlantic efforts for cooperation on digital regulation can better account for the rapid pace of technological change. Early evidence of this more forward-looking approach is emerging through the EU’s proposed regulation of digital services and artificial intelligence (AI), and in the UK’s proposed legislation to tackle online harms. — The recently launched EU-US Trade and Technology Council is a particularly valuable platform for strengthening cooperation in this arena. But transatlantic efforts to promote a model of digital governance predicated on democratic values would stand an even greater chance of success if the council’s work were more connected to efforts by the UK and other leading democracies.