G7 Leaders agree on a common principles for digital trade & data use

G7 Leaders agree on a common principles for digital trade & data use

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The Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations reached a breakthrough on a joint set of principles to govern cross-border data use and digital trade.

Trade ministers of the seven countries, who met in London, arrived at a consensus on the ‘G7 Digital Trade Principles’. Britain said that the principles could liberalize hundreds of billions of dollars of international commerce.

In a statement issued following the meeting, concerns were marked over domestic policies related to data encryption and data localization.

The deal sets out a middle ground between highly regulated data protection regimes used in European countries and the more open approach of the US.

“We oppose digital protectionism and authoritarianism and today we have adopted the G7 Digital Trade Principles that will guide the G7’s approach to digital trade,” the communique published by Britain said.

Digital trade is broadly defined as trade in goods and services that is either enabled or delivered digitally, encompassing activities from the distribution of films and TV to professional services.

According to a government study of official data, the remotely delivered trade for Britain alone was worth $448.09 billion in 2019, or a quarter of all its trade.

But differing rules governing the use of customer data can create significant barriers,