E Commerce Wto And Developing Countries

This paper discusses the policy issues that e-commerce raises for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and developing countries. Electronic commerce offers unprecedented opportunities to both developed and developing countries. In the short term, due to lack of infrastructure in the developing countries, the gains are likely to be concentrated in the developed countries. In the long term, the developing countries have more to benefit and they can gain by skipping some of the stages in development of information technology through which developed countries have had to pass. The author has three policy proposals for developing countries. First, that it would be most appropriate to classify e-commerce as trade with services with GATS discipline applied to it. Classifying e-commerce as goods trade with a permanent zero custom duty pact would liberalise all e-commerce by default, undermining the bargaining power of developing countries. Secondly Internet transactions would be best classified as cross-border trade rather than consumption abroad. The last proposal is that developing countries with the capacity to export skilled services through the Internet, should aggressively negotiate market access with developed countries in the future WTO negotiations aiming to seek liberalisation in the sectors in which they have comparative advantage and recognition of their education, qualifications and skills etc.

E-Commerce and Digital Trade reviews the current frameworks, legal issues, empirical data, WTO member states proposals, and existing literature. It is designed for policy-makers in Commonwealth small states, LDCs, and sub-Saharan African countries to participate in global work on the subject area, including the WTO work programme on e-commerce.

This study examines the potential trade gains from the rapidly increasing use of the Internet for commercial purposes. It was written as a means of providing background information for the 132 WTO members who are now developing policy responses to this new form of commerce. Written by a team of economists from the WTO Secretariat, it identifies the complexities as well as the potential benefits of trade via the Internet. The book describes the expansion of opportunities that electronic commerce offers, including for developing countries.--Publisher's description.

"This book provides researchers readers with a synthesis of current research on developing countries experience with e-commerce"--Provided by publisher.

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is rapidly transforming the way in which enterprises are interacting among each other as well as with consumers and governments. Despite important potential benefits, businesses and consumers in developing countries were for a long time slow to exploit e-commerce. As a result of changes in the evolving landscape for information and communications technologies (ICTs), this pattern is now changing, and e-commerce is growing rapidly in emerging markets and developing economies. Against this background, this publication revisits the potential opportunities and risks of e-commerce and examines how countries can benefit the most from the phenomenon in today's Information Society. Using official statistics and private sector data, it provides an up-to-date review of global and regional trends related to e-commerce in view of changes in the ICT landscape, focusing on developing countries while drawing lessons from developed countries.

Business managers in developing countries would find in this volume a solid background to e-commerce at large, and to its significance within a wider framework of a resource-based view of their business and of the national economic settings within which they operate. The book is of special importance to the academic community of Internet students, as well as for those interested in economic development, by providing a pioneering insight into the issue of e-commerce in developing countries which may emerge strongly in the upcoming years. Aharon Kellerman, Growth and Change Undoubtedly an important contribution. E-commerce is a technology which holds the possibility of levelling the global trading playing field. This book provides a necessary review of current issues in e-commerce in developing economies, and a useful collection of good practice and solid theory for scholars, policymakers and professionals. John Peters, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, UK This is a road map of some of the challenges governments and companies face, in terms of physical and human infrastructure, as countries wrestle with a rapidly changing commercial environment. As the virtual world conquers ever more of the material world, countries that adapt and adopt to a cyber reality will likely do better. If you are doing business or setting policy in a developing country, you want to understand and address the issues raised in this book. Juan Enriquez, CEO, Biotechonomy, US and author of The Untied States of America and As the Future Catches You The authors of this unique volume provide a timely and valuable perspective on how technology and the Internet revolution are changing business and spurring development across the world, especially in emerging countries. Utilizing a framework grounded in rigorous theory, they provide a fine-grained understanding of electronic commerce adoption processes by public and private sector entities in developing countries. In so doing, they consider how each exchange encounter is shaped by, and in turn shapes, relational characteristics that form the basis for growth and development. Using a resource-based view of economies, the authors hypothesize that differences in the adoption of electronic commerce technologies in developing economies can be attributed to a sense-and-respond capability of governments with respect to new technologies, which they term technological opportunism . One of their main objectives is to establish the distinctiveness of technology opportunities from related constructs, such as innovativeness, and show that it offers a significantly better explanation of technology adoption and diffusion than do existing constructs. The book examines a number of developing countries experiences with electronic government, bringing real life experience to the adoption of an e-government model by looking at the issue from strategic as well as operational perspectives. The volume s ground-breaking research and conclusions will be of great interest to professionals, researchers and students in the areas of e-commerce and economic development; government officials of developing and newly industrialized countries contemplating e-government initiatives; and information technology managers.

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is rapidly transforming the way in which enterprises are interacting among each other as well as with consumers and governments. Despite important potential benefits, businesses and consumers in developing countries were for a long time slow to exploit e-commerce. As a result of changes in the evolving landscape for information and communications technologies (ICTs), this pattern is now changing, and e-commerce is growing rapidly in emerging markets and developing economies. Against this background, this publication revisits the potential opportunities and risks of e-commerce and examines how countries can benefit the most from the phenomenon in today's Information Society. Using official statistics and private sector data, it provides an up-to-date review of global and regional trends related to e-commerce in view of changes in the ICT landscape, focusing on developing countries while drawing lessons from developed countries.