WORK PROGRAMME ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Report by the Chairperson of the Council for Trade in Goods
to the General Council

As agreed by the Council for Trade in Goods at its meeting of 26 June 2015, I am making, under my own responsibility as Chairperson, the following factual report to the General Council:

Pursuant to the 2013 Ministerial Decision^[1] instructing the General Council, inter alia, to hold periodic reviews on the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce in its sessions of July and December 2014 and July 2015, based on the reports submitted by the WTO bodies entrusted with the implementation of the Work Programme, the Council for Trade in Goods placed the issue of the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce on the agenda of its meetings of 2014 and 2015. At these meetings, the Chair invited delegations to express their opinions and to make suggestions as to how to work on the preparation of the periodic reviews to be held in the General Council at its sessions of July and December 2014, and July 2015.

The Goods Council addressed the issue of the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce at its meetings of 9 April, 19 June, and 17 November 2014, and 26 March and 26 June 2015. However, only at the meeting of 26 March 2015 did a delegation intervene to call upon Members to continue to reinvigorate work under the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, and to continue extending the moratorium on applying customs duties to electronic transmissions.

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