E-Commerce in Light of International Trade Agreements: The WTO and the United States-Jordan Free Trade Agreement

E-commerce offers economy-wide benefits. World Trade Organization(WTO) members recognized the benefits e-commerce offers andhave developed a work program to facilitate the developmentof e-commerce. However, WTO efforts to facilitate e-commercehave stalled, leading to a slower than anticipated progress.As fundamental differences continue to stall progress in theWTO’s program on e-commerce, the United States concludeda free trade agreement with Jordan. This agreement was the firstever to incorporate explicit provisions on e-commerce. Thisarticle analyzes how existing trade agreements have dealt withe-commerce. The article gives an overview of the situation inWTO. The article then examines the e-commerce provisions inthe United States-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (US-JO FTA) andhow the parties have tackled the obstacles that stalled theWTO work on e-commerce. It concludes that the US-JO FTA approachregarding e-commerce did not move beyond what the WTO has alreadydone. It is argued that although there are specific provisionsdealing with e-commerce in the FTA, the parties left many loopholesto be filled.