./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/380
27 October 1999
(99-4665)
General Council Original:  Spanish
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
WTO Work Programme on Electronic Commerce
Paragraph 9(d) of the Ministerial Declaration of Geneva
Communication from Cuba
The following communication, dated 26 October 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Cuba.
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Introduction
1. Electronic commerce is increasing the possibilities for companies from developing countries
to participate in international trade.  The greate st benefits for the economic development of these
countries are generated by the increased efficiency of the domestic economy as a result of trade
between firms and increased foreign exchange earnings from goods exports, though principally from
services exports.
2. Despite these advantages, there are major constraints on the rapid development and expansion
of electronic commerce in developing countries.  The major obstacle is limited access to the Internet
and to the necessary telecommunication and information technology infrastructure.
3. Developing countries must also meet the challenge of creating the appropriate legal
framework for fostering the development of electronic commerce.  The appropriate legal
underpinning for electronic transactions must provide for the requirements of written documents,
originals, signatures, contracts of sale, as well as title and other negotiable documents.  The changes
must be made to domestic laws in order to take account of these factors call for considerable technicalinformation and implementation time.
4. The difficulties of access to modern technologies for the purposes of electronic payments,
data protection, document authenticity and telecommunications are hampering the rapid incorporation
of developing countries.
5. Developing countries are facing the consequences of their late entry into electronic commerce
as a result of the unequal competition imposed by developed countries, which have years of
experience as well as the necessary human, technological and financial resources.  This is true of the
limited access by companies from developing countries to technologies, ideas or solutions that are in
the public domain and which have already been patented on the basis of very broad criteria.  The
increasing number of such patents is inhibiting the expansion of electronic commerce and preventingthe use of the technologies involved by a large number of players.WT/GC/W/380
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6. Developing countries must incorporate the technical standards necessary for ensuring
international trade, in such areas as:  incompatible data processing systems, differences in procedures
for data encryption and the authentication of documents with digital signatures, among other things.
To incorporate these standards and use national resources to apply them, effective ways of
guaranteeing access to the relevant new technologies must be found.
7. The following proposals reflect the need to consider these constraints in taking decisions
concerning the WTO work programme on electronic commerce.
Proposals
8. Ministers, in the framework of the recommendations on the WTO Work Programme on
Electronic Commerce, agree as follows:
(a) The General Council shall resume the examination of the various aspects of
electronic commerce, by means of a new Work Programme in which the competent
WTO bodies will continue (or begin) the study of the issues set out in the existing
programme (or other new issues) that call for further studies as well as drawing on
work that is still in progress in other international fora such as WIPO, UNCTAD,
UNCITRAL, OECD and ITU.
(b) The Committee on Technical Barriers to Tr ade shall become involved in the Work
Programme in order to look into aspects related to the setting of the technical
standards needed for interna tional trade in the form of electronic commerce, so that
they do not become trade barriers to developing countries and in order to guarantee
access to the technologies required to apply those standards.
(c) Considering the growing use of new technologies in electronic commerce and the
problems facing developing countries in regard to the transfer of these technologies,
the proposed Working Group on Transfer of Technology will consider these factors
in its study on the implications of the WTO Agreements for the transfer of
technology, in particular for developing countries.
(d) The Work Programme on Electronic Commerce shall take account of the fact that the
continued liberalization of trade, as one of the aims of the WTO, and in particular that
of electronic commerce, will not be possible on a fair and equitable basis without the
application or consideration of provisions to guarantee special and differential
treatment for developing countries.  It must also take into account the problems
facing these countries in obtaining access to the Internet, putting in place the
necessary infrastructure (faxes, telephones, software programmes, computers, etc.), aswell as their telecommunications capacity, the concentration of technological
resources within a few international companies, the monopoly on payments systems,
the problems of human resource training, the high cost of technologies for electronic
payments and product delivery, among other things.
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