INF/ECOM/8  
 
25 March  2019 
(19-1862) Page: 1/2 
 Original: English  
 
JOINT STATEMENT ON E LECTRONIC COMMERCE INITIATIVE*  
COMMUNICATION FROM T HE RUSSIAN FEDERATIO N  
The following communication, dated 15 April 2018, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the Russian Federation.  
 
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Welcoming the outcomes of the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference on e -commerce issues and 
referring to the Mi nisterial Joint Statement on e -commerce (WT/MIN(17)/60), we would like to 
present our vision on the possible ways of undertaking exploratory work preceding future WTO 
negotiations on trade -related aspects of e -commerce.  
 
We are convinced that the success of the above -mentioned exploratory work depends on the active 
participation of all WTO Members, without which the elaboration of universal rules on effective 
regulation on e -commerce issues at the international level is not deemed possible. We therefore 
encourage WTO Members that signed the Joint Statement to put in their best efforts to involve as 
many Members into the exploratory work as possible.  
 
1  NEXT STEPS  
1.1.  The exploratory work shall be based on the examination and analysis of the gaps in the WTO 
Agree ments related to e -commerce and existing barriers in this sphere. These two elements should 
determine the future coverage of the negotiation on e -commerce issues, as well as the format of 
future arrangements. Therefore, we believe that the first step  of exploratory work should be to 
prepare such analysis.  
1.2.  Under these circumstances, we suggest that WTO Secretariat could provide an analytical survey 
that includes the following: examination and analysis of the gaps in the WTO Agreements that could 
potentially  affect e -commerce; and overview of the existing practices and mechanism of e -commerce 
regulation (e. g. in regional agreements, free trade agreements, etc.), including an illustrative list 
of the regulated e -commerce issues. Furthermore, for further accum ulation of such information by 
the WTO Secretariat, we propose that Members provide the WTO Secretariat with illustrative lists of 
the existing barriers to e -commerce.   
1.3.  We are convinced that a collective undertaking of e -commerce related issues will be use ful for 
structuring further work in this area.  
1.4.  The second step  should be to determine the scope and coverage of future arrangements in 
order to have a clear understanding of the potential gains from the future agreements. The 
determination of the scope an d coverage shall not be based solely on the gaps and barriers analyses, 
but also on developing a common understanding on e -commerce subject matter.  
1.5.  As we have already stated before (JOB/GC/131), Members have always applied different 
approaches towards det ermining e -commerce subject matter (e -commerce – trade in goods, trade 
in services, trade related aspects  of intellectual property), therefore, different subject matters will 
require specific regulations. We consider e -commerce to be a cross -cutting issue including all spheres 
                                                
* This document was originally circulated as JOB/GC/ 181 dated 16 April 2018.  INF/ECOM/8  
 
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  of regulation, therefore, we believe that a holistic approach to this topic should be applied in order 
to avoid misleading interpretations and to build a common understanding on this issue. Therefore, 
we suggest that the future discus sions cover all aspects of e -commerce without splitting topics on 
e-commerce for separate discussions.   
1.6.  Thus, we have prepared a preliminary list of e -commerce issues that  in our opinion deserve 
Members'  attention. It is in no way intended to determine the  scope and outcome of the future   
negotiations, but rather to attract attention to these important aspects of e -commerce. We propose  
that e -commerce issues could be divided into the following two groups:  
1. Matters that fall within the WTO legal framework bu t need further clarification regarding the 
specificity of e -commerce:  
• imposition of custom duties;  
• application of customs valuation, rules of origin, import licensing, certification, labelling , 
technical regulation and SPS measures;  
• application of traditional principles of intellectual property rights protection in the sphere 
of e-commerce taking into account cross -border nature and innovative character of e -
commerce;  
• application of different specific commitments under the GATS, as we ll as separate services 
related to e -commerce;  
• facilitation of paperless trading.  
 
2. Matters that are not covered by the existing WTO rules, but are relevant to e -commerce:  
• authentication and recognition of e -signature (principles and rules of electronic 
authentication and recognition of electronic signatures need to be developed);  
• e-payments (secure mechanism for e -payments need to be developed);  
• privacy, personal data protection, secure data flow (mechanism for data protection and 
conditions f or secure data flow need to be developed);  
• consumer protection principles (key consumer rights need to be recognize d, which include 
the right to access r eliable information on goods and/or services; principles of cooperation 
between competent authorities n eed to be developed with a view to restrain unfair 
business practices; protection against SPAM need to be enhanced; measures against 
abuse of consumer rights in e -commerce need to be determined; etc.)  
 
1.7.  We understand that each Member has his own interest in  this sphere, which is why the above -
mentioned analytical work could help us structure future discussions and define an exhaus tive list 
of issues for discussion.  
1.8.  And, the potential next step  of exploratory work could be to discuss selected e -commerce 
issues.  
1.9.  Overall, we are convinced that such exploratory work structure could help all WTO Members to 
benefit from this process as much as possible.   
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