Approaches to market openness in the digital age

The digital transformation has had a profound impact on international trade, lowering barriers to internationalisation and contributing to growing trade competitiveness, but at the same time making international trade transactions more complex. Distinctions between goods and services and between modes of delivery have become blurred, and trade today must not only to be faster and more reliable, but also meet a range of regulatory requirements that differ across markets, including those related to privacy, consumer protection and security. Against this backdrop, this paper suggests that new and more holistic approaches to market openness are needed for the 21st century. These should take into consideration issues that span goods, services and digital networks more jointly and involve more international dialogue between a range of stakeholders and policy communities. The paper then discusses how principles of good regulatory practice in relation to market openness – in particular, transparency, non-discrimination, interoperability and avoidance of unnecessary trade restrictiveness – can provide guidance when approaching some of these emerging challenges, with a view to helping inform policy makers as they consider rules for the digital age.