./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/306
9 August 1999
(99-3377)
General Council Original:  English
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
WTO Work Programme on Electronic Commerce
Communication from the European Communities
and their Member States
The following communication, previously circulated informally to the Council for Trade in
Services, is being circulated formally to the General Council at the request of the Permanent
Delegation of the European Commission.
_______________
The attached is submitted as a contribution to the ongoing WTO work programme on
electronic commerce, and which is intended to lead to recommendations to be submitted by the
General Council to the Third WTO Ministerial Conference. The list of principles is to assist
discussions by Members and is in no way intended to be an exhaustive list.
_______________WT/GC/W/306
Page 2
POSSIBLE LIST OF TRADE PRINCIPLES ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
(WTO Work Programme on Electronic Commerce)
WTO Members agree1 that:
1. Electronic commerce involves two types of deliveries:
- goods delivered physically, -while ordered electronically, which fall within the scope
of the GATT;
- electronic deliveries, which consist of services and therefore fall within the scope of
the GATS.
2. All GATS provisions, whether relating to general obligations (e.g. MFN, transparency,
domestic regulation, competition, payments and transfer, etc.) or specific commitments (Market
Access, National Treatment or Additional Commitments) and general exceptions to the GATS
(Article XIV) are applicable to electronic deliveries.
3. According to the principle of technological neut rality of the GATS, specific commitments are
undertaken when a service is listed in a schedule , irrespective of the technology used to provide it,
unless otherwise specified. The likeness of ‘like services’ for the purposes of the application of the
GATS MFN and national treatment obligations does not depend on whether the services are delivered
electronically or not.
4. All GATS modes of supply are potentially applicable to electronic deliveries.
5. Internet access and network services are telecommunication services. The obligations of the
GATS Telecoms Annex on ‘access to and use of’ public telecommunications networks and services
apply to internet access and internet network services. The provisions of the GATS Reference Paper
on Basic Telecommunications on interconnection apply to the major providers of telecommunicationservices over the internet and to major suppliers of internet access and network services.
6. Appropriate measures shall be maintained by Members for the purpose of preventing
suppliers of internet access, internet network and in ternet certification services who, alone or together,
are a major supplier from engaging in or continuing anti-competitive practices.
7. Domestic regulation on the electronic means of delivery needs to be in accordance with
Article VI of the GATS. Regulatory measures on the electronic means of delivery could be justified
on the basis of specific public policy objectives to be defined.
8. There is a need to enhance the participation of developing countries in electronic commerce,
in particular by improving and facilitating  access to telecommunications services by the users in these
countries, including by SMEs. Thus, technical assistance programmes should be provided in a
coordinated and transparent manner.
9.  The current practice of not imposing custom duties on electronic transmissions shall be
maintained.
__________
                                                     
1 This list of principles is by no means exhaustive.  For example, additional principles may be needed
in relation to intellectual property, new services and modes of supply services.