Work Programme on Electronic Commerce

Draft Ministerial Decision of 13 December 2017

Seventy-one members said they would initiate exploratory work towards future WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce, with participation open to all WTO members. Proponents said a first meeting will be held in the first quarter of 2018. Together, the group accounts for around 77 per cent of global trade.

The Ministerial Conference decides as follows:

We agree to continue the work under the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce since our last session, based on the existing mandate as set out in WT/L/274. We will endeavour to reinvigorate our work and instruct the General Council to hold periodic reviews in its sessions of July and December 2018 and July 2019 based on the reports submitted by the relevant WTO bodies and report to the next session of the Ministerial Conference.

We agree to maintain the current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions until our next session which we have decided to hold in 2019.