Despite ongoing debates about the need to regulate Big Tech companies Australia is sponsoring a deregulatory international agreement in the face of opposition from both the US and developing countries.

The 166-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiates multilateral agreements that set the rules for global trade. The process is slow because consensus is required by all members.

In 2019, discussions began about an electronic commerce agreement involving all WTO member countries, but consensus could not be reached. In 2021, a group of mostly richer WTO countries decided to go it alone and have been negotiating a plurilateral agreement or Joint Sectoral Initiative (JSI) on e-commerce. Such an agreement among those members would not have the status of an official WTO agreement without consensus by all WTO members. The JSI Co-conveners are Australia, Japan and Singapore.

The stated aim of the agreement is to set global rules to support the expansion of e-commerce and digital trade. Some of these are not controversial, like enabling electronic ordering and payment systems. However, richer countries in the Global North have driven other aspects of the negotiations on behalf of their global digital companies who want to protect their market share, maximise........

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