Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T08:20:24.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learning about Digital Trade: Privacy and E-Commerce in CETA and TPP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2019

ROBERT WOLFE
ROBERT WOLFE*
Affiliation:
School of Policy Studies, Queen's University
*
*Email: robert.wolfe@queensu.ca.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every ambitious twenty-first century trade agreement is in want of a chapter on electronic commerce. One of the most politically sensitive and technically challenging issues is personal privacy, including cross-border transfer of information by electronic means, use and location of computing facilities, and personal information protection. States are learning to solve the problem of state responsibility for something that does not respect their borders while still allowing twenty-first century commerce to develop. A comparison of the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) allows us to see the evolution of the issues thought necessary for an e-commerce chapter, since both include Canada, and to see the differing priorities of the US and the EU, since they are each signatory to one of the agreements, but not of the other. I conclude by seeking generalizations about why we see a mix of aspirational and obligatory provisions in free trade agreements. I suggest that the reasons are that governments are learning how to work with each other in a new domain, and learning about the trade implications of these issues.

Type
Review Article
Information
World Trade Review , Volume 18 , Special Issue S1: Digital Trade , April 2019 , pp. S63 - S84
Copyright
Copyright © Robert Wolfe 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Columbia Law School Trade Seminar Series on 6 November 2017. I am grateful for insightful comments from Susan Ariel Aaronson, Henry Gao, Bernard Hoekman, Petros C. Mavroidis and Roy Santana, for the able research assistance of Grace Tahan, Sifat Syeda, and Maria Bridgemohan; and for confidential interviews in Geneva and Ottawa.

References

Aaronson, S. A. and Leblond, P. (2018), ‘Another Digital Divide: The Rise of Data Realms and Its Implications for the WTO’, Journal of International Economic Law, 21(2): 245–272.Google Scholar
Allee, T., Elsig, M., and Lugg, A. (2017), ‘Is the European Union Trade Deal with Canada New or Recycled? A Text-as-Data Approach’, Global Policy 8(2): 246–252.Google Scholar
Alschner, W., Seiermann, J., and Skougarevskiy, D. (2017), ‘Text-as-Data Analysis of Preferential Trade Agreements: Mapping the PTA Landscape’, Ottawa Faculty of Law, Working Paper No. 2017-32, 10 July 2017.Google Scholar
Berka, W. (2017), ‘CETA, TTIP, Tisa, and Data Protection’, in Griller, S., Obwexer, W., and Vranes, E. (eds.), Mega-Regional Trade Agreements: CETA, TTIP, and Tisa: New Orientations for EU External Economic Relations, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Branstetter, L. (2016), ‘TPP and Digital Trade’, in Schott, J. J. and Cathleen, C. I. (eds.), Assessing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Volume 2: Innovations in Trading Rules, Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics, pp. 72–81.Google Scholar
Burri, M. (2017), ‘The Regulation of Data Flows through Trade Agreements’, Georgetown Journal of International Law, 48(2): 407–448.Google Scholar
Canada (2009), ‘Guidelines for Processing Personal Data across Borders’, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, January 2009, www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/personal-information-transferred-across-borders/gl_dab_090127/ (accessed 1 April 2018).Google Scholar
Canada (2018a), ‘Towards Privacy by Design: Review of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act – Report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics’, House of Commons, February 2018.Google Scholar
Canada (2018b), ‘E-Commerce: Certain Trade-Related Priorities of Canada's Firms – Report of the Standing Committee on International Trade’, House of Commons, April 2018.Google Scholar
Chaisse, J. and Matsushita, M. (2018), ‘China's “Belt and Road” Initiative: Mapping the World Trade Normative and Strategic Implications ’, Journal of World Trade, 52(1): 163–185.Google Scholar
Ciuriak, D. and Ptashkina, M. (2018), ‘The Digital Transformation and the Transformation of International Trade’, RTA Exchange, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and the Inter-American Development Bank, January 2018.Google Scholar
Cockfield, A. J. (2010), ‘Legal Constraints on Transferring Personal Information across Borders: A Comparative Analysis of PIPEDA and Foreign Privacy Laws’, in Zureik, E. et al. (eds.), Surveillance, Privacy, and the Globalization of Personal Information International Comparisons, Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press, pp. 50–69.Google Scholar
Dawson, L. (2018), ‘Global Rules of Digital Trade: Can We Adapt Bordered Regulation for a Borderless World?’, Canadian Global Affairs Institute, February 2018.Google Scholar
Drake, W. J. and Nicolaïdis, K. (1992), ‘Ideas, Interests, and Institutionalization: “Trade in Services” and the Uruguay Round’, International Organization, 46(1): 37–100.Google Scholar
EU (2017a), ‘A Connected Digital Single Market for All, Communication from the Commission on the Mid-Term Review on the Implementation of the Digital Single Market Strategy’, European Commission, COM/2017/228 final, 5 October 2017.Google Scholar
EU (2017b), ‘Exchanging and Protecting Personal Data in a Globalised World: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council’, European Commission, COM(2017) 7, 10 January 2017.Google Scholar
EU (2018), ‘European Commission Endorses Provisions for Data Flows and Data Protection in EU Trade Agreements’, European Commission, Daily News, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEX-18-546_en.htm, 31 January 2018.Google Scholar
Ferracane, M. F. (2017), ‘Restrictions on Cross-Border Data Flows: A Taxonomy’, European Centre for International Political Economy, ECIPE Working Paper No. 1/2017.Google Scholar
Ferracane, M. F., Lee-Makiyama, H., and Van Der Marel, E. (2018), ‘Digital Trade Restrictiveness Index’, European Center for International Political Economy, April.Google Scholar
Gao, H. (2018), ‘Regulation of Digital Trade in US Free Trade Agreements: From Trade Regulation to Digital Regulation’, Legal Issues of Economic Integration, 45(1): 47–70.Google Scholar
Geist, M. (2018), ‘Data Rules in Modern Trade Agreements: Toward Reconciling an Open Internet with Privacy and Security Safeguards’, Centre for International Governance Innovation, 4 April 2018.Google Scholar
Goldfarb, A. and Trefler, D. (2018), ‘Ai and International Trade’, National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper Series No. 24254, January 2018.Google Scholar
Greenleaf, G. (2016a), ‘Free Trade Agreements and Data Privacy: Future Perils of Faustian Bargains’, UNSW Law Research Paper, No. 2016-08, 30 November.Google Scholar
Greenleaf, G. (2016b), ‘International Data Privacy Agreements after the GDPR and Schrems’, Privacy Laws & Business International Report, 139: 12–15.Google Scholar
Greenleaf, G. (2017a), ‘European Data Privacy Standards Implemented in Laws Outside Europe’, Privacy Laws & Business International Report, 149 (3 September): 21–23.Google Scholar
Greenleaf, G. (2017b), ‘Renewing Convention 108: The Coe's “GDPR Lite” Initiatives’, Privacy Laws & Business International Report, 142: 14–17.Google Scholar
Gudjonsson, H. (2018), ‘The Arctic, Where Cold Storage Comes Cheap for the Digital Age’, Financial Times, 22 March 2018.Google Scholar
Heidhues, P., Johnen, J., and Koszegi, B. (2018), ‘Browsing Versus Studying: A Pro-Market Case for Regulation’, unpublished MS, 27 January.Google Scholar
Hoekman, B. and Mattoo, A. (2017), ‘Altered States: Populism and the Changing Political Economy of Trade Policy and Negotiations’, EUI and World Bank, September 2017.Google Scholar
Horn, H., Mavroidis, P. C., and Sapir, A. (2010), ‘Beyond the WTO? An Anatomy of EU and US Preferential Trade Agreements’, The World Economy, 33(11): 1565–1588.Google Scholar
Hyman, D. A. and Kovacic, W. E. (2018), ‘Implementing Privacy Policy: Who Should Do What?’, SSRN, February 2018.Google Scholar
Krotoszynski, R. J. (2016), ‘Canada: Privacy in Canada: Taming a Notoriously Protean Legal Concept with a Coherent and Purposive Approach’, Privacy Revisited, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lim, A. H. and De Meester, B. (2014), ‘Addressing the Domestic Regulation and Services Trade Interface: Reflections on the Way Ahead’, in Lim, A. H. and De Meester, B. (eds.), WTO Domestic Regulation and Services: Trade Putting Principles into Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 332–351.Google Scholar
Lomonte, F. (2018), ‘The Law That Made Facebook What It Is Today’, The Conversation, 11 April 2018.Google Scholar
Macdonald, R. A. and Wolfe, R. (2009), ‘Canada's Third National Policy: The Epiphenomenal or the Real Constitution?’, University of Toronto Law Journal, 49(4): 469–523.Google Scholar
Manyika, J., Lund, J. B. et al. (2016), ‘Digital Globalization: The New Era of Global Flows’, McKinsey Global Institute, March 2016.Google Scholar
Mishra, N. (2017), ‘The Role of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in the Internet Ecosystem: Uneasy Liaison or Synergistic Alliance?’, Journal of International Economic Law, 20(1): 31.Google Scholar
Monteiro, J.-A. and Teh, R. (2017), ‘Provisions on Electronic Commerce in Regional Trade Agreements’, World Trade Organization, WTO Working Paper ERSD-2017-11, July 2017.Google Scholar
Muller, G. (2015), ‘The Necessity Test and Trade in Services: Unfinished Business?’, Journal of World Trade, 49(6): 951.Google Scholar
Newman, A. L. and Posner, E. (2015), ‘Putting the EU in Its Place: Policy Strategies and the Global Regulatory Context’, Journal of European Public Policy, 22(9): 1316–1335.Google Scholar
O'Connor, N. (2018), ‘Reforming the US Approach to Data Protection and Privacy’, Council on Foreign Relations, 30 January 2018.Google Scholar
OECD (2017), OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2017, Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Privacy Commissioner of Canada (2009), ‘Guidelines for Processing Personal Data across Borders’, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, January 2009, www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/personal-information-transferred-across-borders/gl_dab_090127/ (accessed 1 April 2018).Google Scholar
Power, E. M. (2017), The Law of Privacy, 2nd edn, Toronto: LexisNexis.Google Scholar
Ruggie, J. G. (1982), ‘International Regimes, Transactions, and Change – Embedded Liberalism in the Post-War Economic Order’, International Organization, 36(2): 379–415.Google Scholar
Ruggie, J. G. (1993), ‘Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations’, International Organization, 47(1): 139–74.Google Scholar
Santana, R. (in press), ‘Cross-Fertilization of International Trade Law: How Chapter 2 of the TPP Was Influenced by the WTO and Prior US Trade Deals’, in Gantz, D. A. and Goldman, J. H. (eds.), The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement: Its Substance and Impact on International Trade, NAFTA, and Other FTAs, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, M. (2018), ‘Zuckerberg: Facebook Will Apply EU Data Privacy Standards Globally’, Politico, 5 April 2018.Google Scholar
Shaffer, G., Wolfe, R. and Le, V. (2015), ‘Can Informal Law Discipline Subsidies?’, Journal of International Economic Law, 18(4): 711–741.Google Scholar
Soma, J. T. and Rynerson, S. D. (2008), Privacy Law in a Nutshell, St Paul, MN: Thomson/West.Google Scholar
Sookman, B. (2018), ‘Google Attempted End Run around Canadian Courts Fails, Rules Bc Judge in Equustek Case’, 17 April 2018, www.mccarthy.ca/en/insights/blogs/snipits/google-attempted-end-run-around-canadian-courts-fails-rules-bc-judge-equustek-case.Google Scholar
Stoddart, J. (2012), ‘International Privacy Standards: Development, Recent Events and Limitations’, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Remarks at the 43rd Annual Study Session of the International Institute of Human Rights, 9 July, www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/speeches/2012/sp-d_20120709/.Google Scholar
Voss, W. G. (2017), ‘First the GDPR, Now the Proposed Eprivacy Regulation’, Journal of Internat Law, 21(1): 3–11Google Scholar
Watanabe, P. J. (2017), ‘An Ocean Apart: The Transatlantic Data Privacy Divide and the Right to Erasure’, Southern California Law Review, 90(5).Google Scholar
Wolfe, R. (2015), ‘An Anatomy of Accountability at the WTO’, Global Policy, 6(1): 13–23.Google Scholar
Wolfe, R. (2017), ‘Canadian Trade Policy in a G-Zero World: Preferential Negotiations as a Natural Experiment’, in van Assche, A., Tapp, S., and Wolfe, R. (eds.) Redesigning Canadian Trade Policies for New Global Realities, Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, pp. 323–363.Google Scholar
WTO (1998), ‘Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce, Adopted on 20 May 1998’, World Trade Organization, Ministerial Conference, Second Session, WT/MIN(98)/DEC/2, 25 May 1998.Google Scholar
WTO (2017), ‘Joint Statement on Electronic Commerce’, World Trade Organization, Ministerial Conference, Eleventh Session, WT/MIN(17)/60, 13 December 2017.Google Scholar
Yakovleva, S. (2018), ‘Should Fundamental Rights to Privacy and Data Protection Be a Part of the EU's International Trade “Deals”?’, World Trade Review, 17(3): 477–508.Google Scholar
Young, A. R. (2015), ‘Liberalizing Trade, Not Exporting Rules: The Limits to Regulatory Co-Ordination in the EU “New Generation” Preferential Trade Agreements’, Journal of European Public Policy, 22(9): 1253–1275.Google Scholar