India missing chance to shape WTO’s digital economy ‘rule book’, analysts say

Dozens of nations including China, the United States and Japan this week agreed to cooperate on digital trade in the post-coronavirus era, although India’s absence in the initiative continued to stand out.

Australia, Japan and Singapore, the co-conveners of the WTO’s joint statement initiative (JSI) on e-commerce, said on Tuesday that after three years of negotiations, 86 countries representing over 90 per cent of global trade had agreed to common rules in eight areas of digital trading, including online consumer protection, electronic contracts and paperless trading.