Leadership on Digitally-Enabled Trade

NFTC takes a leadership role on behalf of the business community to highlight the nexus of digital and emerging new technologies with trade policy and ensure that the digital highway remains open to facilitate inclusive access to the global marketplace.

The Council educates policy makers on the threat that digital barriers pose to free trade, including the rise of digital tariffs, and works to elevate the role of digital tools in expanding access to the global marketplace for small businesses and underserved communities. 

As new technologies are developed, NFTC aims to ensure the United States continues to write the global rules that enshrine  free and fair trade policies, avoid unnecessary trade restrictions and enable inclusive access to the global marketplace.

 

NFTC's Digital Trade Priorities Include:

  1. A long-term extension of the Moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions at the World Trade Organization. The moratorium has been extended since 1998, allowing for digital trade by all economies, reducing trade costs and making it easier for SMEs to use digital tools to grow their export market.
  2. The negotiation of high-standard digital trade rules, market access for services sectors critical for e-commerce including payments, logistics, and computer and related services, and trade facilitation commitments to ensure fair access to digital and e-commerce tools through the Joint Statement Initiative on e-Commerce at the World Trade Organization and through regional and bilateral trade forums.
  3. Expand government efforts and private-public partnerships to help businesses adopt digital tools and to develop skills training and capacity-building programs.