On December 20, Singapore, Japan and Australia, the conveners of the WTO e-commerce negotiations, issued a press release and a trilateral ministerial statement, announcing that 90 WTO members, including China, the United States and Europe, had substantially concluded some negotiations on global digital trade rules, and called on participants to fully conclude the negotiations as soon as possible in 2024.

Wto Director-General Joaquin Iweala and ministers from 12 member countries, including China, the US, the EU, the UK and Singapore, delivered written remarks.

Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao pointed out in a written speech that promoting the green development of digital trade has become a global consensus.

Digital trade is the new engine of global trade growth in the 21st century.

The WTO's Joint Declaration on E-commerce Negotiations Initiative is a core platform for global digital trade rule-making.

China hopes that high-standard, balanced and inclusive digital trade rules will be reached as soon as possible to help developing members seize relevant development opportunities and benefit from them.

The three ministers' statement pointed out that the participants have reached basic consensus on 13 topics, including electronic signature and authentication, online consumer protection, paperless trade, electronic transaction framework, and electronic contracts, and will promote the formation of consensus as soon as possible on electronic payments, telecommunications services, information and communication technology (ICT) products using cryptography, and development. And strive to make a high level of commitment to tariff exemption for electronic transmissions to increase the commercial significance of the agreement.

In the future, the participants will continue to discuss data flow, localization of computing facilities, source code and horizontal issues, and fully conclude the negotiations as soon as possible.

In January 2019, 76 WTO members, including China, the United States and the European Union, issued a joint statement to launch negotiations on trade-related e-commerce issues.

Australia, Japan and Singapore are co-convening the talks.

Up to now, the negotiating parties have expanded to 90 members, accounting for more than 90% of global trade.