The Economic Implication of the EU-US Data Privacy Relationship on its Bilateral Digital Trade Activities

It is no longer news that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on global economic activities. While countries continue to grapple with the seeming unending destruction of human lives caused by the pandemic, global economy continue to suffer due to the slow or lack of economic activities across the world. With restrictions imposed by countries across the globe, the pandemic has crippled traditional infrastructures deployed by countries in executing traditional cross-border bilateral trades. With the palpable fear of recession looming across the globe, coupled with the uncertainties around resumption of normal economic activities, economies of the world are learning to adapt to a “new normal” as economic activities and business relationships have transitioned online. This has contributed to the astronomical increase in internet activities by users; turning the world into a global marketplace. According to reports, worldwide digital population as of last quarter 2020 stood at 4.66 billion users . This represents almost more than half of the world’s population and a sharp increase from previous figure of 3.97 billion users. The increase in internet users has been attributed to the transition of most business activities, whether domestic or foreign, to the internet, as companies leveraged on technology and internet to provides goods and services across the globe. While the increase in internet users stimulated the global digital economy during the pandemic, it resulted to an increase the exposure of personal or business data of its users online. A situation which has exposed the inefficiencies in the data protection legal framework of some countries and, reinforced the advantage other countries have during bilateral digital trade as result of having a more robust data protection framework. This article examines the European Union (EU) and United States of America (US) data privacy relationship and the possible impact it may have on the bilateral digital trade relationship between both countries as global economy transition into digital economy. To unravel this issue, the author would examine the existing digital trade relationship between the EU and the USA and potential impact the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) may have on same even as global economies transition to digital trade as a tool to stimulate economic activities while avoiding the spread of COVID-19