The Group of Seven Rich Countries (G7) agreed to the principles that will govern cross-border data use and digital commerce, the UK reported, describing it as a breakthrough that could liberalize hundreds of billions of dollars of international trade.
The G7 trade ministers reached an agreement at a meeting in London on Friday.
The agreement establishes a middle ground between the highly regulated data protection regimes of European countries and the more open approach of the United States.
“We oppose digital protectionism and authoritarianism and today we have adopted the G7 Digital Commerce Principles, which will guide the G7’s approach to digital commerce,” said the statement released by Britain.
Digital trade is broadly defined as trade in goods and services that is enabled or provided digitally, encompassing activities ranging from film and television distribution to professional services.
For Britain alone, distance trading was worth 326 billion pounds ($ 448.09 billion) in 2019, or a quarter of all its trade, according to a government study of official data.
But the different rules governing the use of customer data can create significant barriers, especially for small and medium-sized businesses for which the rules are complicated and expensive.
Friday’s agreement is a first step in reducing those barriers and could lead to a common digital commerce regulation.
The principles cover open digital markets, cross-border data flows, safeguards for workers, consumers and businesses; digital trading systems and fair and inclusive global governance, according to the statement.
“We must address unjustified obstacles to cross-border data flows, while continuing to address privacy, data protection, protection of intellectual property rights and security,” said an annex to the document.
A British official with knowledge of the agreement said: “This agreement is a real breakthrough that is the result of hard diplomatic work.”
The G7 is made up of the United States, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Canada.
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