European Parliament Wants To Write The Rules For Digital Trade

The European Parliament today adopted a report that lays out a European digital trade strategy. Adopted by a margin of 510 to 95 in Strasbourg, the report obliges the Commission to make digital trade an essential part in the European trade policy.

Liberal politician Marietje Schaake (Alde) in a press release after the vote on her report wrote, “Europe is overtaking the US as the driving force behind international trade rules ever since President Trump radically changed the direction of US policy. A lot of work has been done, but we are still lagging behind in digital trade rules. Trade in the 21st century is not just about shipping cheese and cars abroad, it is also about enabling the provision of e-commerce and digital services.”

Essential points of the strategy include rules for cross-border data transfers and the rejection of forced data localization as well as other protectionist measures by trade partners. A chapter on data-flows was still missing in the latest trade agreement with Japan, Schaake criticised.

At the same time European data protection standards have to be preserved, the Parliament decided. Schaake said the different political parties had in fact “succeeded in illustrating how digital trade can be enabled while data protection standards are preserved.” Digital protectionism as well as anti-competitive behavior of big platforms has to be fought, and the open internet and fundamental rights like freedom of speech have to be protected and promoted, the report said.

The Parliament’s digital trade strategy also touches on the protection of intellectual property rights. Paragraph 20 asks that the Trade Commissioner “to push for the worldwide implementation of international standards such as the WTO TRIPS Agreement and the WIPO Internet Treaties.” But at the same time, it also “stresses, however, that trade agreements are not the place to extend the level of IP protection for rights holders by providing for more extensive copyright enforcement powers.” It adds that “access to medicines in third countries should not be challenged on the basis of IP protection.”

The Parliament also “exhorts the Commission to keep a close eye on ICANN‘s gTLD program,” referring to the expansion of new top-level domain names at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). And it called to “guarantee, in line with its commitment to a free and open internet, the protection of rights holders, in particular those relating to geographical indications.”

Jan Philip Albrecht (Green Party) after the vote said the European Parliament with the strategy had made it clearer than ever that trade agreements must not infringe on fundamental rights.

“Yes to data protection, net neutrality, access to broadband, and IP protection,” former EU Commissioner of Justice Viviane Reding (European People’s Party, see press release) said during the debate before the vote, but “no to forced data localization, to spam, to overpriced international call rates and roaming or the the forced handover of source code.”

The EU digital trade strategy will be presented during the upcoming Internet Governance Forum (in Geneva), Schaake wrote, and it will be reviewed every five years by the European Parliament.

 

Image Credits: European Parliament, European Parliament Audiovisual Service