What we do?

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Chapter 14 on Electronic Commerce was cutting-edge at its inception in 2018 when the agreement first came into force. However, since this time there has been sustained growth and evolution of the digital economy, major advances in digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) and dramatic changes in the geopolitical trade landscape. The urgent development of new regulatory frameworks and international conventions to address the risks and opportunities of these new technological and economic conditions necessitate a comprehensive review of the CPTPP’s digital provisions to maintain the Agreement’s relevance.

This review takes place against the backdrop of seismic shifts in the geopolitical context, in good measure driven by the digital transformation and the rivalry it has unleashed to dominate critical technologies. This has been combined with novel national security risks that have emerged in the digital sphere, and an escalating ‘polycrisis’ in the social and environmental spheres. 

The challenges facing CPTPP economies are profound and complex. The new digital technologies are critical to addressing new societal challenges, yet guardrails must be maintained against downside risks and a compelling business case must be sustained for the continued development of the digital economy. Crucially, the frameworks must support the participation of middle-sized and smaller economies in the development of the digital economy. These economies constitute the CPTPP’s membership in the context of technologies that scale at the global level and are the bone of contention among the great powers using all the tools of geoeconomic force at their disposal.

This report makes the case for a major upgrade to the CPTPP’s e-commerce chapter to maintain its “gold standard.” This would be achieved by levelling up to the trade policy frontier established by work within intergovernmental organizations and in negotiated texts in trade agreements concluded since the CPTPP text was finalized and by tackling myriad new issues to push that frontier out.