Digital Economy Agreements vs. Free Trade Agreements
The quest for innovative trade policy instruments has led to the emergence of digital economy agreements as alternative instruments to conventional free trade agreements for governing digital trade. Their concomitant deployment begs the following questions:
- Conceptually, which instrument is better suited for particular goals or circumstances?
- Empirically, which instrument in practice is better able to achieve its stated goals and deliver results?
Our three speakers will map out the differences across these policy instruments and discuss the pros and cons from a legal, regulatory and business perspective.
The study group is co-organized by the UK Trade Policy Observatory, Sussex University, Brighton, UK; the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, ON, Canada; and the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub at George Washington University, Washington, DC.
