The rapid development of the Internet and other information communication technologies (ICTs) has led to the growing electronic cross-border delivery of services and digital products such as software.1 While regional trade agreements increasingly innovate as regards the cross- border delivery of services and the incorporation of chapters on e-commerce, on the multilateral level the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has not evolved since the end of the Uruguay Round.
This paper reviews the progress in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements in securing liberal digital trade, i.e. electronic cross-border trade flows of data, services and digital products. The paper’s purpose is to start thinking about what digital trade rules may be needed today and in fifteen years from now. It focuses on the role of the multilateral trading system as regards digital trade flows actually taking place over information networks.
The first and the second parts of this paper analyse developments with respect to electronically delivered products and services at the multilateral and bilateral trade levels. The third part raises the question of what digital trade rules are needed today and in 2015–2020.