WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/COMTD/18
23 March 1999
(99-1171)
Committee on Trade and Development
SEMINAR ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT,
19 FEBRUARY 1999
Summary Report
At the request of Members, the Committee on Trade and Development held a seminar on
electronic commerce and development.  The seminar was organized under the headings:  "Potential
for Electronic Commerce for Businesses in Developing Countries" and "Infrastructure and Regulatory
Issues at the Government Level".  In the absence of the Chairman of the Committee, the seminar was
chaired by Mr. A. Hoda, Deputy Director-General.  The list of speakers is given in Annex I.
Opening Remarks by Chairperson
1. Mr. Hoda, welcomed the delegates and speakers.  He noted that seminars and symposia were
not a regular feature in the WTO, but exceptions needed to be made for new and important subjectslike electronic commerce and that this seminar was being organized on the specific request of
delegates.  He also noted that in the past, papers on the subject of e-commerce and development had
been submitted by the delegations of Egypt
1 and the US2. A background note had also been brought
out by the WTO Secretariat3 with the following main conclusions which he hoped would be built
upon during the seminar:
(i) Electronic Commerce is useful to both producers and consumers in developing
countries as it helps them overcome the traditional barriers of distance from markets
and lack of information about market opportunities.  Producers and traders no longer
need to maintain physical establishments requiring large capital outlays.  Virtual
shops and contact points on the Internet may enable storage close to the production
site and distribution can be made directly to the consumer.  Increased advertisingpossibilities world wide may help small and medium industries and businesses in
developing countries that traditionally find it difficult to reach the customer abroad.
E-Commerce may also enable such firms to eliminate middlemen while trying to sell
their products abroad.
(ii) A well functioning and modern telecom infrastructure, satisfactory supply of
electricity and access to hardware, software and servers are basic requirements for
e-commerce.  Widespread access to telecommunications at low prices and availability
of telecom equipment at international prices can enhance the capacity of countries to
participate in e-commerce.
(iii) E-Commerce makes it possible for consultancy type work such as software
development to be carried out in the developing countries from where the consultants
                                                     
1"Electronic Commerce in Goods and Services" WT/COMTD/W/38.
2Submission relating to the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce WT/COMTD/17.
3"Development Implications of Electronic Commerce" WT/COMTD/W/51.WT/COMTD/18
Page 2
come rather than in the country where the service is demanded.  This should facilitate
sale of services in which the developing country has a comparative advantage which
it has not been able to utilise fully because of restrictions on the movement of natural
persons.  This should be a net benefit to the exporting country both in terms of
income and retained earnings.
(iv) Trade and business communications through electronic means give rise to a number
of legal issues.  For instance if  a service was sold over the Internet across countries
in which geographical location can the transaction be deemed to have occurred?  This
question may be important from the point of view of consumer protection and
establishing the jurisdiction. Furthermore electronic transactions require electronic
contracts and electronic signatures which have not been provided for in the contractlaws of many countries.  Most developing countries that wished to participate in
electronic commerce  needed to undertake major legislative reforms in this regard.
2. The Chairperson remarked that the seminar had been organized with a view to deepening the
understanding of the issues involved.  He hoped that it would give rise to ideas among delegates fortaking the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce forward.  He thanked the Canadian
Government for their financial contribution towards meeting the costs of the seminar.
I. POTENTIAL FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE FOR BUSINESS IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
Morning Session
Mr. Christiaan van der Valk, Deputy Director of Policy & Business Practices, International
Chamber of Commerce
3. According to Mr. van der Valk, the ICC programme on e-commerce, which had been in place
for the past three years, had two main features:
(i) an emphasis on the concept of industry self-regulation in e-commerce;(ii) promotion of  the e-commerce action plan of the Alliance for Global Business
(AGB).
4. With regard to the first, the ICC believed that e-commerce was a business system that had
grown very quickly without regulation.  This meant that self regulation was likely to bring in greater
returns than ever.  With a view to helping the e-commerce sector regulate itself the ICC provided
certain services that facilitated individuals and businesses in developing countries to switch from
traditional business transactions to electronic transactions.  One type of service, called "E-Terms",
made available a repository of rules and terms used in international trade that were capable of being
directly incorporated into contracts.  Another service provided small companies anywhere in the
world with legal resources that enabled them to draw up international contracts easily.  Anotherservice, provided by to the International Bureau of Chambers of Commerce, enabled member
Chambers of Commerce to provide help to SMEs in listing their products or services on the Internet.
5. With regard to the second feature of ICC's programme, the speaker explained that the AGB
was a coordinating mechanism for a group of organizations that had made e-commerce one of theirareas of priority for the next few years.  Members of the body included the Business and Industry
Advisory Committee to the OECD, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, the
World Information Technologies and Services Alliance, the International Telecommunications UserWT/COMTD/18
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Group and the ICC.  At the OECD Ottawa Conference on e-commerce, in 1998, the AGB had
developed a global e-commerce action plan which presented a business perspective on areas where
governments needed to take the initiative and thos e where they needed to allow business to lead.  A
technical issue like digital signatures was an area where it would be much easier for business to take
the lead in making detailed rules.  On the other hand, governments had to lead in such areas aspromoting competition, reinforcing the sanctity of  contracts, protecting intellectual and physical
property and protecting societal values.
6. According to the speaker, the preliminary recommendations of the AGB (not yet ratified by
all AGB members) on the role of the WTO and its member governments in e-commerce were:
- to inform society about the impact of e-commerce;
- to provide a stable and  predictable legal environment;
- to continue to gather and analyse data on e-commerce;
- to promote market entry  opportunities for SMEs through e-commerce;
- to coordinate action on e-commerce with other intergovernmental organizations;
- to expand participation of business in policy discussions;- to support skills development programmes especially in developing countries;
- to promote competition in telecommunication  and information markets;
- to encourage and support business self regulation in e-commerce; and
- to promote the use of e-commerce within government itself.
Mr. Saada Baila Ly, Superintendent Telecoms, Co mpagnie des Bauxites de Guinea (CBG), Guinea
7. Mr. Ly gave a short description of the CBG,  as a 26 year old joint venture between a US
multinational and the Government of Guinea for extracting bauxite for export to the US, Canada andGermany.  The company had an annual turnover of US$ 350 million with exports totalling 13 million
metric tonnes per year.
8. He explained that CBG used its own telecomm unications network to facilitate communication
between various units of the company within and outside the country as well as with its purchasers in
Germany and Canada.  This network was independent of the domestic telecommunications network of
Guinea which, despite liberalization, was very poor.  The company's independent telecommunicationsnetwork enabled it to communicate with its buyers abroad, order supplies of equipment and spare
parts needed for the company's 24-hour operations, conduct all the logistics operations of the
company including processing of orders, invent ory management, financial management with the
company headquarters in Pittsburgh, USA and the processing headquarters in Brussels, and provide
e-mail service to company personnel.
9. CBG's telecommunication infrastructure was basically an Intranet  making use of the Intelsat
Business Service (IBS).  The company's mining a nd processing units in Guinea were connected via
satellite to the United States and thence by sea cable to Brussels.  The Company headquarters at
Pittsburgh used a teleport that provided a gateway to the rest of the world.
10. According to Mr. Ly, the superior communications service provided through the intranet
saved time spent in trying to keep in touch with cl ients, suppliers of primary material for the company
(heavy fuel), and equipment suppliers.  It also enab led quick monitoring of ships that arrived and left
Guinea carrying the company's produce, which otherwis e could be delayed, leading to large financial
losses for the company.WT/COMTD/18
Page 4
Mr. Phillipe D. Monnier, Co-founder and Director, Eurêka Cybertrading SA, Switzerland.
11. Mr. Monnier explained that his company was established in 1996 and sold products such as
(brand name neckties and music scores) over the Internet that were very costly in countries such as
Japan but available relatively cheaply in Switzerland, France and Italy.  The company today had15 websites in Japan;  it also sold goods in Switzerland and other parts of Europe.  Customers were
usually familiar with their products as they would have seen them in local shops.  However, Eurêka
sold them approximately 30 per cent cheaper than the local prices and so there was no shortage of
demand.  The company comprised just five persons, and the speaker emphasized that none of them
had a background in computer sciences.
12. The company began by studying the operations of already established companies like
CDNOW, a US company that sold CDs over the Internet which had a very good, user friendly
web-site.  However, CDNOW had been incurring financial losses and Eurêka had tried to identify the
reasons for the losses and avoid repeating them.
13. According to the speaker, the company initially held about 100 conferences in Japan which
helped create a first pool of clients.  This in turn helped generate further customers.  The company's
success also led to consultancy offers from big firms like Migros in Switzerland and from other small
companies.  Some of these consultancy reports had also led to books on e-commerce.
14. Mr. Monnier explained the advantages of the Internet for commercial transactions.  It was a
multimedia system which could provide video and audio output along with text;  it was world wide so
that at a very small cost a business could have access to clients from across the world.  It was open
24 hours and the website could be easily modified.  Websites could also be easily customised to suit
the requirements of particular businesses.
15. However, the speaker also pointed to certain disadvantages of doing business transactions
over the Internet:
- the (false) perception that using a credit card on the Web meant risking the loss of
secrecy of its number reduced the volume of transactions.  Eurêka had avoided
accepting payments online and rather accepted payments by traditional methods after
delivery.  This boosted customer confidence and though the company was liable togreater risk of default, in practice, the rate of non payment had been almost zero;
- the problem of low band width on the Internet, which could create problems if the
website was heavily loaded with audio and visual effects;
- lack of customer traffic, customer trust (as the good being sold cannot be evaluated
physically) and credibility.  These were issues that do not exist for a business located,
say, in a well known shopping area.  The speaker believed that to persuade a large
amount of customers to visit a website was normally very expensive to do on the
Internet.  This was one reason why companies like CDNOW and Amazon had beenincurring losses;
- the problem of ubiquity in e-commerce, that prevented geographical earmarking of
the market between two or more online dealerships of the same product and could
discourage famous brands from e-marketing;
- the problem of uniform pricing so that a seller of goods on the Web can have only
one price across the world, whereas in the traditional method a product could be
priced differently in different countries;WT/COMTD/18
Page 5
- the problem of logistics - a person selling goods on the Web must realise that the job
of packaging, despatching on time, and handling returned goods (as done by mail
order companies) was a very specialised one.
16. The speaker gave the example of "Boxman", a Swedish company selling CDs over the Web
that had succeeded in getting the requisite pub licity without spending too much money.  This
company had motivated some famous singers, journalists and businessmen to buy a nominal amount
of company shares and had then advertised the fact of their 'ownership' extensively which had
generated enormous publicity for the company.
17. Mr. Monnier felt that for developing countries, e-commerce represented a tremendous
opportunity and that there was no need to have a sophisticated technical infrastructure.  Success in
e-commerce depended more on business sense than on the sophistication of the website. For example,
the website of Boxman, the Swedish CD company, had fewer frills than CDNOW's site, yet the
former had made profits from the beginning and the latter had not.  Finally, the speaker felt that the
role of Government in promoting the use of the Internet end e-commerce was crucial and Singaporewas a good example of the same.
Mr. Ayisi Makatiani, Chief Executive Director, Africa Online Holdings Ltd., Kenya
18. Mr. Makatiani explained that Africa Online began in 1994 in Boston, US and Nairobi, Kenya
with the objective of reducing the gap between expatr iate Africans and Africa and also improving the
access of Africans to current international news.  Initially, daily news from Nairobi was sold to buyers
among expatriates in the United States and soon the process was reversed with Reuters news being
sold to buyers in Kenya.  Later, the company expanded to Ivory Coast and Ghana and then toTanzania and Zimbabwe in 1997.  According to Mr. Makatiani, the website had 10 million hits per
month, the company had 250 employees, the annual turn over was in tens of millions of dollars and
there were 150,000 subscribers, many of which were businesses.
19. He pointed out that e-commerce in Africa was still a difficult proposition even though the
telecom infrastructure was showing signs of improv ement, driven mainly by wireless telecom services
which had increased teledensities in countries like Cote d'Ivoire and Zimbabwe.  Problems remainedof poor infrastructure, low computer usage, continuance of monopolies and only a trickle of foreign
direct investment.  However, Africa Online believed that that an Internet revolution was possible in
Africa through building communities of interest, networks of content and service providers.
20. To this end, Africa Online was using 200 community communications centres in Ghana
(which until now had provided just telephone, computer and fax services) to provide e-mail and the
Africa Online news service to about 30,000 subscribers.  Mr. Makitiani emphasised that many of
these e-mail subscribers were using the e-mail serv ice for business purposes instead of using the
traditional slower methods like telex.  Africa Online had also signed agreements with the postal
departments in Ghana and Tanzania to provide e-mail services in all the postal centres across thesecountries.  The company has also set up some commercial networks including a network for
pharmacies in Ghana through which pharmacies could order drugs from the central depository over
the Internet.  The company had also helped set up a real estate network in Ghana.  A large number of
African banks had also set up web pages on the network, though online banking had not yet begun.
21. According to the speaker, the future plans of the company were to expand to another five
African countries during the current year and also spread from capitals to smaller cities and towns.
However, one major cause of worry was the prospect of the Internet becoming free as the company
was still dependent on access charges (and not advertisements or sponsorships) for its revenues.WT/COMTD/18
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Discussion
22. The representative of Senegal stated that his country would soon be organizing a USAID
sponsored international seminar on e-commerce.  He mentioned that the increasing use of English as
the primary language of the international business community acted as a barrier for businessmen in
his country.  He also raised the issue of difficulties faced by least developed countries with regard to
backward telecom infrastructure, human resource development and training and commented that
unless these were taken care of, LDCs might become further marginalized in a world driven by
electronic commerce.  He also asked if e-commerce would lead to revenue losses for developing
countries.
23. The representative of Egypt asked whether business practices were changing as a result of
e-commerce.  He complimented the realistic presentation given by Mr. Monnier which had
highlighted practical difficulties that practitioners of e-commerce were likely to encounter and stated
that developing countries ought to be made awar e of them.  However, recalling that in some poor
countries people sometimes had to travel long distances to reach a telephone, he questioned the viewthat infrastructure problems were not of much importance in e-commerce.  He also wished to know
from the panelist from Africa Online the extent of competition faced by his company and pointed out
that while increased competition could reduce profit  margins of service providers, it would benefit
consumers immensely.
24. The representative from India raised the question of movement of natural persons in the
context of electronic commerce and wished to know whether customised consultancy services over
the Internet had reduced the need for the actual movement of consultants.  She also emphasized the
need for countries to give due care to infrastruc ture issues as poor infrastructure could impede the
smooth and timely delivery of physical goods ordered over the Web.
25. The representative of Venezuela stated that there was a lack of knowledge in developing
countries on the immediate and long term impact of e-commerce.  He felt that in hi-tech sectors like
medicine and telecommunications, developing countries had not been able to match the resources of
the developed countries and there was no reason why e-commerce would be any different.
Nevertheless he believed that e-commerce offered some opportunities for developing countries,
including the elimination of middlemen in trade, reduced transaction costs, increased trade between
developing countries through Trade-Points, better outreach into markets of developed countries, and
the use of the new medium for education and health.  He mentioned the experience of Columbia and
Costa Rica where incentives were being given for establishing 'virtual microenterprises'.
26. The representative of Korea wanted the speakers to elaborate on the different ways in which
governments could promote e-commerce.27. The representative of Cuba wanted a standard definition of e-commerce that could be used in
discussions in different forums.
28. In reply to the question on how e-commerce has affected business practices, Mr. van der Valk
stated that one change was the elimination of middlemen and it was possible that several types of
business, such as forwarding agencies, could disappear.  At the same time the new technology was
likely to create new types of intermediaries needed  for instance, to filter out excess information that
was prone to being displayed in the system.  The new technology had also led to the merger ofservices;  for instance, some courier services had also become network providers.  According to him,
companies like Microsoft that possess the technology of the new medium, could diversify into a
variety of sectors, including banking, without much difficulty.WT/COMTD/18
Page 7
29. In reply to the question on movement of natural persons, Mr. van der Valk's view was that
e-commerce would reduce the need for consultants to travel to the country of their client.  Instead,
businesses were likely to become more mobile , with superior and less costly communications
allowing companies to shift their offices  to cheaper locations within countries and abroad. Employers
and employees were also likely to be more mobile than before so long as they could access theInternet from wherever they were.
30. With regard to the role of governments in e- commerce, he especially stressed their role in
promoting competition among service providers and also in promoting the speedy adoption of suitable
laws that legitimized the use of electronic means in commerce.
31. In reply to the questions on the importance of infrastructure and logistics, Mr. Monnier felt
that the minimum requirement for e-commerce was a telephone line.  His company usually shipped
goods using the Swiss or Japanese postal service which provided insurance cover.
32. With regard to the doubts raised by Venezuela on the prospects of e-commerce for developing
countries, Mr. Monnier gave the example of Singapore which was poorer than Venezuela some yearsago but had used technology and a sound business mindset to move ahead.
33. Responding to the question regarding the role of government, Mr. Ly felt that deregulation
and liberalization should not be considered a loss of sovereignty and in fact should be taken up
quickly by developing countries before they missed the opportunity.
34. In reply to the question about the competition faced by Africa Online and fees charged to its
customers, Mr. Makitiani pointed out that the presence of telephone monopolies in most African
countries meant that his company had to pay very high charges for leasing circuits and band widths.With regard to the issue of  revenue losses for deve loping countries, he felt that on the contrary there
were opportunities for African governments to earn revenues through e-commerce.
Morning Session II
Mr. William W. Burrington, Vice President, Global Public Policy, America Online Inc., USA
35. Mr. Burrington explained that AOL's e-co mmerce policy had four guiding principles:
- individuals should be allowed to determine the products, services and content of the
Internet;
- Internet policy should be market driven and industry led, although government's role
in areas like taxes and tariffs was warranted;
- where government intervention is considered necessary, it should be
non-discriminatory and technology neutral;
- Internet policy should aim at universal access to the Internet and electronic
commerce.
36. Describing the phenomenal rate of growth of the Internet, Mr. Burrington indicated that while
it had taken 38 years for the radio to reach 50 mi llion users in the US, 16 years for the PC and
13 years for TV, Internet users had crossed the 50 million mark in just four years.  He felt that the
Internet had an unprecedented potential to affect education, politics, society and the everyday lives ofWT/COMTD/18
Page 8
people as no other medium had in the past.  From the viewpoint of developing countries one major
benefit was that it could be used by them to leapfrog an entire generation of technology.
37. He also gave figures to show that the price of PCs in the US had fallen from an average of
US$ 1,933 in January 1996 to below US$ 1,000 in January 1999 and this was significant from thepoint of view of affordability in developing countries.  Recent efforts to develop cheap wireless
devices that could replace PCs were also important for poorer countries.  Another good sign was that
developing countries' teledensity had increased more rapidly in the past few years.
38. The speaker explained that AOL regarded a competitive and liberalized regulatory
environment as key to the success of e-commerce.  He showed an example of government–industry
cooperation from a website in Singapore in which IBM had offered a service for setting up personalwebsites, which was available to a customer with a 50 per cent subsidy from the government.  The
speaker emphasized that a cultural change was needed with regard to the use of e-commerce in
government and held out the belief that once people started using the Internet for things like
telebanking, there would be no going back.  There was also a need to have an ongoing dialogue
between the government and the 'architects of the new economy'.  He believed that Internet companieslike AOL and Africa Online were the architects of the new economy as they were the companies
creating jobs, wealth and changing the ways of conducting business.
39. The speaker also presented web pages of successful e-commerce companies from both
developed and developing countries including:
LOTFY (an online shopping mall in Egypt) [www.lotfy.com]
SISCOTEL (an online shopping mall in Argentina)[www.compras.com]
EBAY (a large online auction house)[www.ebay.com]
UNIBEX (a site that helped create webpages and also connected sites of similar  businesseswith each other)[unibex.trident.net/index.html]
PEOPLINK (a site selling goods from all around the world)[www.peoplink.org]
Mr. Claro V. Parlade, senior partner, Benitez Parlade Africa Herrera Parlade & Panga Law Offices,
Arcon Group, Philippines
40. Describing the state of electronic commerce in the Philippines, Mr. Parlade stated that
although commerce by electronic means such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and electronic
transfer of money had existed in the country for many years, e-commerce over the Internet was a
recent phenomenon.  The growth of Internet e-commerce began after the adoption of a National
Information Technology Plan in 1997 by the Philip pines Government and the issue of administrative
instructions to all government departments to connect to the Internet.  Currently, 182 departments,
bureaux and national agencies had Internet links.
41. The speaker described some of the other steps taken by the Government that were
contributing to the spread of the Internet.  These were:  emphasis on providing Universal Serviceunder the Philippines Telecommunications Policy Act 1995 and the decision of the Department of
Justice in 1998 to remove barriers to FDI in the In ternet sector by keeping Internet companies out of
the list of mass media companies, on which the Philippines' constitution restricts foreign ownership to
40 per cent.  The Philippines' Senate had also ra tified the WTO Declaration on Trade in Information
Technology Products (the ITA), under which the Government was committed to eliminate tariffs onIT imports by 2000.  Finally, a bill to recognize electronic contracts and electronic signatures, based
on UNCITRAL's model law, had also been introduced recently in the Senate.WT/COMTD/18
Page 9
42. The speaker mentioned that a recent study involving respondents from Singapore, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines showed that the Philippines had the highest Internet
user-based growth, increasing by 44 per cent from May 1997 to May 1998.  He believed that the use
of the Internet would go up further once competition between the 140-odd Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) in the country resulted in a fall in Internet access charges.
43. However, he pointed out that at present 94 per cent of the Internet users had not purchased
anything over the Web and 84 per cent of the users had no intention of doing so.  According to the
speaker one of the major barriers to the growth of e-commerce in the country had been the reluctance
of banks to allow online payment through credit cards.  Other barriers included low teledensity, lack
of consensus on public policy on e-commerce taxation, jurisdiction, privacy and domain names.
Mr. Dewang Mehta, President , National Associat ion of Software and Service Companies, India
44. According to Mr. Mehta, India represented a success story of a developing country using the
Internet to earn income and foreign exchange.  Currently 158 "Fortune 500" companies including
General Electric, Pepsi, British Airways, Citibank, American Express, Alcatel and Coca Cola were
outsourcing their software requirements to India.  The software exports industry had been growing at
a rate of 50 per cent per annum since 1991.  The majority of software exports were directed towards
the United States (58 per cent in 97/98) followed by Europe (21 per cent).
45. The speaker explained that there were several reasons for India's success.  One of them was
the world's second largest reservoir of English speaking scientific manpower, with 115,000 engineers
graduating from Indian universities every year and 150 universities and 460 institutes providing
computer education at the undergraduate level.  A second was the availability of technology such as
high speed (satellite) data communication and other value added telecom services for softwaredevelopment.
46. The speaker stressed the importance of innovation for the success of e-commerce in
developing countries.  Thus, even though India had only 2.5 million PCs, there were 37 million cable
TV connections which had the potential to be used to access the Internet by suitably programming
television set top boxes.  Further, as the use of credit cards was not very common in India, payments
were made in cash at the time of delivery.  Three popular e-commerce sites shown by the speakerwere www.ibsaxena.com that sold a variety of products, www.rediff.co.in that sold books and
www.net-shoppers.com that sold flowers.  The speaker mentioned that apart from the innovative use
of cable TV, there was also a plan for making use of the 600,000 public call offices (PCOs) spread
throughout the country to increase e-mail and Internet penetration and through it promote
e-commerce.  A third innovation that was being attempted was the promotion of video e-mail amongexpatriate cab drivers in Mumbai for sending message s to their families in their native villages for a
nominal charge.
47. Mr. Mehta stated that, apart from software development, new areas of remote processing had
emerged as major foreign exchange earners for India.  These included data processing, remotemaintenance, medical transcription and maintenance of call centres.  Elaborating on the concept of
medical transcribing, he explained how doctors in US hospitals who did not have the time for routine
tasks like maintaining records of patients, accessed a remote processing company in India through a
toll free number, dictated their comments which were then transcribed into the computer and
electronically sent back to the hospital in the US the same day.  Call centres of major airline and
banks were increasingly being shifted to India owing to the immense savings in costs.
48. Mr. Mehta emphasized that although the remote processing of software orders had reduced
the need for Indian consultants to travel abroad by around 40 per cent since 1991, there was still aWT/COMTD/18
Page 10
need for movement of natural persons for installing and maintaining software.  Another reason why
the movement of consultants continued to take place was for reasons of security and this was best
exemplified by the "Y2K" contracts, most of which required the consultant's physical presence at the
computer site.
49. The speaker agreed with others that e-commerce had to be led by the private sector. The role
of Government was to provide confidence to anyone conducting transactions over the Internet and, to
this end, adopt and update suitable laws.  He also believed that unless Governments themselves
played the role of a model user of e-commerce, they would not take sufficient interest in promoting its
use by others.
Mr. Bernard Ancel, Chief of Trade Information Section, International Trade Centre, UNCTAD/WTO,
Geneva
50. Explaining the role of the ITC in e-commerce, Mr. Ancel stated that the organization was
mainly concerned with pre-transactional activities such as providing data for market research, trade
promotion including publicity through the Internet, research on electronic tendering, legal aspects of
e-commerce and training activities for government and business.
51. According to the speaker, developing countries should be aware that the future direction of
cybertrading would be business-to-business rather than business-to-consumers.  Some surveysindicated that the former would grow to a level of  US$ 160 billion while the latter only to
US$ 10 billion by the year 2000.
52. The speaker also mentioned that the ITC had contributed to the setting up of a Virtual
Exhibition Centre on the Internet in 1996 in c ooperation with UNCTAD and UNESCO, with a view
to promoting handicrafts from developing countries.  There was also a plan to provide training to
developing countries that desired to have their own websites for promoting handicrafts in the future.
Discussion
53. The representative of the European Communities wanted to know the panelists' opinion of
WTO's Work Programme on E-Commerce.
54. The representative of Angola enquired from the Chairman if there was a WTO strategy on
e-commerce with a view to promoting investment in the least-developed countries in view of the high
costs of acquiring the hardware and infrastructure required for participating in the electronicrevolution.
55. The Chairperson reiterated some of the questions that had been only partially answered from
the morning session.  He referred to questions on the movement of natural persons, and on the role of
transfer of technology in e-commerce.  He also wished the speakers to spell out the exact mix ofprivate and government initiatives that they believed were required.
56. In his reply, Mr. Mehta of Nasscom stated that in his view e-commerce partially reduced the
need for movement of consultants across borders, thereby allaying fears of developed countries of loss
of jobs for domestic workers.  However, he reiterat ed that such movement continued to be necessary
for understanding specifications, installing and maintaining software so that while the number of
persons required to be travelling abroad may not come down significantly, the time spent abroad
would come down.  Regarding transfer of technology, the speaker was of the view that there was notWT/COMTD/18
Page 11
much technology that remained to be transferred.  Rather, the technology of the Internet was one of
open standards which is available to everyone.
57. In his reply to the question about WTO's Work Programme, Mr. Burrington of AOL stated
that conferences and discussions like this were invaluable in promoting the work programme on
e-commerce.  He believed that other issues raised in the Work Programme such as whether to classify
electronic transactions as goods or services were complex questions for which there was as yet no
consensus in the private sector.  His company would like to see better coordination between different
intergovernmental agencies that are working on e-co mmerce.  With regard to the question on the right
mix of government and private sector initiatives, he believed that the 'default policy' should be that of
the private sector and government ought to stand by in case industry wanted its help on a specific
issue.
58. The representative of Senegal raised the issue that in developing countries, liberalization
evoked further demands on the government from the private sector on issues such as protection from
competition.
59. In his reply to this, Mr. Monnier stated that the tendency of private firms was to make
demands on government and it was not obligatory to the government to accede to all their demands.
60. The representative of Zimbabwe wanted to know the role of low orbit satellite systems in e-
commerce.61. The Chairperson responded to the question of a WTO strategy for promoting investment in
LDCs by explaining that the WTO philosophy had been to build a framework that is conducive to
promoting investment and not take any direct action in this regard.  However, he noted the suggestion
for consideration in future deliberations within the WTO.
II. INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGULATION ISSUES AT THE GOVERNMENT
LEVEL
Afternoon Session I
Ms Michelle  d'Auray, Executive Director, Electronic Commerce Task Force, Industry Canada,
Canada
62. Ms. D'Auray began by noting that the cost of sending a 42-page document from Ottawa to
Tokyo over the Internet was 260 times less than if it was sent by traditional post.  It was also
720 times faster to transmit the document electronically.  This showed the extent of the savings intime and money that was possible as a result of the new technology.
63. She explained that one guiding principle of Canada's Internet policy was belief in a direct
relationship between being connected to the Internet and societal development.  The more members of
society who were connected to the Internet, the better informed they were likely to be and so weremore likely to take informed decisions, which in turn would help build a stronger society.  The
Canadian Government aimed to connect 16,500 schools and 3,500 libraries by March 1999;  to have a
computer for every classroom by March 2000;  and to establish 10,000 community access sites in
rural and remote areas by March 2000.
64. The speaker stated that the value of e-commerce in Canada was US$1 billion in 1997, 80 per
cent of which was business-to-business.  This was projected to reach US$ 13 billion by the year 2002,
even in the absence of any special efforts by the Government.WT/COMTD/18
Page 12
65. The Special Task Force on e-commerce had a fixed tenure lasting till the end of 1999.  The
Task Force had a two-pronged strategy, one for the domestic sector and one for international issues
relating to e-commerce.
66. The speaker, who was also head of the Task Force, said that the four key elements of the
domestic strategy were:  building trust for e-commerce;  adapting or building new rules that helped
build trust;  strengthening information infrastructure;  and realizing maximum benefits, both socially
and economically, for all citizens.  Some of the tangible achievements so far were the adoption of a
cryptography policy, tabling of legislation on privacy, development of voluntary guidelines on
consumer protection, and the announcement of a policy of no new taxes for e-commerce.  The speaker
noted that of the 629 federal legal enactments in Canada, 335 required the use of paper documents orsignature on paper.  Legislation to recognize electronic transactions as being at par with paper
transactions had been tabled. Some progress had also been made on the issues of intellectual property,
standards and network access.
67. Canada's international strategy was based on the recognition that e-commerce was essentially
global and that Canadian industry and government s hould work together to influence global policy.  A
major step in this direction had been the hosting of the OECD Ministerial Conference on e-commerce
in Ottawa in 1998.
Mr. Ben Petrazzini, Telecommunication Policy An alyst, International Telecommunications Union
68. Mr. Petrazzini began his presentation by giving an example of how the average income of
families living in a Peruvian village rose from US$ 300 per month in 1995 to US$ 1,500 per month in
1998 once they started selling agricultural products over the Web to a supermarket in New York withthe help of the government, an NGO and an Internet service provider.
69. The speaker showed statistics on Internet infras tructure growth, that indicated that while the
number of Internet hosts world-wide had grown from 1.3 million in 1993 to 43.2 million in 1999,
most were located in developed countries.  Specifically, Canada and the US had 64.1 per cent, Europe
24.3 per cent, Australia, Japan and New Zealand had 7 per cent, the rest of Asia-Pacific 2.9 per cent,
Latin and Central America 1.2 per cent and Africa 0.5 per cent.  This he said, was a reflection of therelative development of telecom infrastructure in different parts of the world.
70. He believed that steps taken through the WTO agreement to introduce competition in the
telecom sector were likely to improve telecom infrastructure in developing countries in the long run.
In the meantime, developing countries could use some of the innovative methods that were suggestedby speakers in the morning session, including the use of public telephone centres to spread Internet
access and promote e-commerce.
71. Mr. Petrazzini explained that the obstacles to e-commerce were different for developed and
developing countries. The major issues identified in developed countries were privacy concerns(31 per cent), censorship (24 per cent), navigation difficulties (17 per cent), taxes (9 per cent) and
others (8 per cent) whereas the main issues in a developing region like Latin America were slow
speed (29 per cent), PSTN prices (29 per cent), ISP prices (19 per cent), lack of Spanish content
(10 per cent) and lack of local content (10 per cent).
72. He believed that for developing countries the matter of high Internet access prices was
particularly important.  This resulted from a combination of high telephone call charges and high
Internet Service Provider (ISP) charges which in tu rn were a result of high leased line charges. He
believed that the high charges were due to the prevalence of monopolies in developing countries, butWT/COMTD/18
Page 13
cautioned that in some cases the introduction of competition might not solve the problem as there
could be some rebalancing of existing subsidies on local calls.
73. According to the speaker, the creation of an independent telecom regulator was a key measure
needed to tackle many telecom issues.  However, many more developing countries needed to committo the Reference Paper that dealt with regulato ry matters in telecommunications in the WTO and
translate their commitments into practice as a step towards improving the infrastructure for
e-commerce.
74. The speaker suggested the following policie s for promoting growth of the Internet:
- support Internet development at the highest level of government;
- improve public network infrastructure through liberalization;
- open and promote access points to the public;
- encourage favourable local tariffs for Internet services (i.e. special dialling numbers);
- create a competitive market for Internet service provision;
- promote the adoption of cost based tariffs in leased lines;- set up an effective and independent regulator;
75. Mr. Petrazzini stated that the ITU had undertaken a number of steps for the promotion of
e-commerce.  One of them was the EC-DC project under which the ITU transfers its know-how in
e-commerce to private and public sector companies in developing countries.
Ms. Jennifer Clift, Legal Officer, United Nations Conference on International Trade Law
(UNCITRAL)
76. Ms. Clift explained that work on e-commerce had begun in UNCITRAL in the mid-1980's.  In
the process it became clear that there were two problem areas – mandatory paper-based
documentation requirements in the major laws of most countries and the incompatibility of domestic
contractual frameworks and international trade requirements.  It was then decided to develop uniform
rules that covered both these areas and this led to the UNCITRAL Model Law on e-commerce being
formulated in 1996.
77. According to the speaker, the basic purpose of the Model Law was to establish an equivalence
between electronic and paper transactions.  This objective was attempted to be achieved through a
process of 'functional equivalence'.  For instance, the function of a signature is to identify the identity
of the signatory and the consent of the signatory to the contents of a document.  Any electronic
message which fulfils both these functions ought to be regarded as legally acceptable.  Similarconsiderations were used to establish the types of electronic documents that ought to be considered
legally valid.
78. Another important principle that was used in UNCITRAL's Model Law was 'media neutrality'
under which neither of the two kinds of transactions (electronic or paper) received priority over eachother.
79. The speaker explained that the Model Law was designed to cover both commercial and
non-commercial transactions and that some of the countries that had adopted it were using it also
within the sphere of government activities such as government procurement, filing of returns,government service matters.
80. She mentioned that the law had been adopted in Singapore and in the state of Illinois, USA;
draft legislation had been tabled in Colombia, Australia and Canada;  the model law was also underWT/COMTD/18
Page 14
consideration in Mexico, New Zealand, India a nd Thailand;  Korea and China had their own
e-commerce laws.
81. The speaker added that the current focus of attention of UNCITRAL's working group on
e-commerce was the development of common rules for the authentication of electronic signatures.
Dr. Derrick L. Cogburn, Executive Director, Gl obal Information Infrastructure Commission, Africa
Secretariat, South Africa
82. The speaker, Dr. Cogburn, explained that the GIIC was founded in 1995 as a
non-governmental organization with its secretariat in Washington D.C.  It's mission was to foster
private sector leadership and public-private cooper ation for the development of information networks
and services.
83. According to the speaker the global economy was changing in a fundamental way.
Companies were locating different components of their value added chain in different places and thiscreated an opportunity for developing countries and small and medium enterprises to benefit.  With
the rise of e-commerce, there was now the opportunity for every member of the global community to
participate.  However, certain barriers to participation existed in the shape of access limitation, high
prices and low user abilities.
84. He mentioned that the WTO definition of e-commerce was gradually being accepted as the
standard definition.
85. Dr. Cogburn stated that e-commerce was projected to grow from US$ 24.4 billion in 1997 to
US$ 1 trillion by 2001.  Advertising on the Web was expected to increase from US$ 310 million in1997 to US$ 4.8 billion by 2000.  The challenge was to ensure that developing countries partook a
portion of this growth.
86. He explained that e-commerce was benefitting 3 main categories, namely businesses
(e.g. Cisco had sales of over US$ 2.5 billion. in 1998), services (e.g. travel services via the Internet
were estimated to be to the tune of US$ 10 billion by 2000) and consumers (e.g. Web companies like
PEOPLink were helping craftspersons in different pa rts of  the world to market their products on the
Internet).
87. The speaker outlined the following issues as  crucial for the development of e- commerce:
- exemption from customs duty and taxation;
- recognition of electronic payment systems;
- developing a global uniform commercial code;
- intellectual property laws that balanced the interests of creators, asset owners and
asset consumers;
- privacy;- security and encryption;
- content;
- technical standards/interoperability;
- human resource development; and
- telecom infrastructure;
88. Finally, the speaker outlined certain activities in which the GIIC was involved in Africa,
including the preparation of a discussion document and a green/white paper on e-commerce in South
Africa, and the preparation of an expert discussion paper in Egypt.WT/COMTD/18
Page 15
Discussion
89. The representative of Uruguay sought information on the progress made as a follow up to the
international convention on legal issues in e-commerce held in UNCITRAL in May 1998.
90. The representative of the European Communities commended the Canadian strategy for
e-commerce as presented in the seminar.  He noted that the global relocation of the units of a
company mentioned by the GIIC panellist did not always lead to benefits as sometimes the time taken
for the completing the production process exceeded the time taken when all units were located within
a single country.  He felt that technology was only a facilitator and that it had to serve business.
91. The representative of Egypt asked how much financial and human resources had gone into the
development of Canada's e-commerce strategy and how Canada collected national data on
e-commerce.  He also requested that success stories like that of the Peruvian village company ought to
be compiled and distributed to delegations so that they could be used to convince people in their own
countries about the benefits of e-commerce.
92. The representative of Venezuela asked the panelists for their opinion on the impact of the
WTO Basic Telecommunications Agreement, as it contained elements that had been regarded as
important  the success of e-commerce.
93. The Chairperson asked the panelists if they believed there was any need for a new
international agreement on the legal aspects of e-commerce, or whether the UNCITRAL model law
was sufficient.
94. Ms. d'Auray replied that the development of government policy on e-commerce in Canada
had not required any new resources and that existing resources from different government
departments had been pooled together for the Task Force.  She also mentioned that the Task Force
relied significantly on the private sector for much of its statistical data.
95. Dr. Cogburn stated that the dispersal of value-added chains was a reality in certain sectors and
countries like Barbados had become centres of offshore production and processing.
96. Regarding the status of the UNCITRAL convention held in 1998, Ms. Clift stated that it was
an informal and private convention and had not yet become part of the UNCITRAL agenda.
97. Regarding the compilation of success stories, Mr. Petrazzini pointed out that a forthcoming
ITU publication "Internet for Developing Countries" contained a number of success and failure
stories.  As regards the impact of the WTO Basi c Telecommunications Agreement, he felt that while
it may not introduce competition immediately, created an atmosphere of certainty for both domestic
and foreign investors and so increased dramatically the chances of investment in telecom
infrastructure for developing countries.
Afternoon Session II
Ms. J. Beckwith Burr, Associate Administrator for International Affairs, National
Telecommunications and Information Admini stration, Department of Commerce, USA.
98. Ms. Burr began by stating that in November 1998, the President of the United States had
directed the Executive Branch to give high priority to the question of the Internet development in
developing countries.WT/COMTD/18
Page 16
99. She went on to describe the impact of e-commerce on the US economy in recent years.
Information technology had contributed to nearly one-third of real GDP growth in the US; there were
seven million information technology workers in the country, who were earning on an average wages
that were two-thirds higher than the US average; the decline in price of information technologyproducts and services had reduced US inflation by one-third; 45 per cent of real business equipment
investment in the US was in IT equipment.
100. She also pointed out that although e-commerce had begun as business-to-business activity,
recent trends of online sales during the holiday season indicated that retail (business-to-consumer)
trade was taking off in a big way.
101. She emphasized that e-commerce had grown in  the United States without the Government
actually doing anything to promote it.  Government's  approach, therefore, was that wherever possible
e-commerce should be market driven, but if there were areas where government intervention was
absolutely necessary, it should support a predictable and simple legal environment.  Its actions should
also be technology neutral.
102. The speaker believed that Internet technology was available to both developed and
developing countries at the same time.  Building the necessary infrastructure now to support the
Internet, developing countries had the opportunity to  leapfrog the 'hard wire' technology that the US
and some other countries had gone through the process of setting up.
103. The United States believed in a competitive Internet service environment, the existence of a
flexible regulatory structure that did not impose the rules of the traditional telecom sector, and the
need to ensure universal access to the Internet.  There were plans to connect all US schools and
libraries to the Internet by the end of the current year.
104. The speaker explained that the policy of minimal government intervention meant that as far as
possible the government depended on existing laws to cover electronic crimes.  For example, existing
consumer protection laws should suffice to cover transactions over the Web;  similarly, the
Administration was depending on existing laws to prevent child pornography, gambling etc. on the
Web.  In matters like privacy protection, self regulation by industry had already had a salutary effect
through online privacy alliances.
105. With regard to regulation of Internet content, the United States believed that it was virtually
impossible to regulate this by legislation and that industry-built technological solutions that filter out
objectionable content were the best solution.
106. The speaker also pointed out that the US Government was working towards removing barriers
to the growth of the Internet.  This included removing restrictions on non-paper-based transactions for
which the UNCITRAL model law was being used by State governments, and the reduction of liability
with respect to copyright for on-line service provid ers.  The Government was also handing over the
control of domain names to the private sector.  Further, the Government had decided not to enact anylegislation on the issue of 'e-money', but only to monitor private sector initiatives in this field.
107. The speaker pointed out that there were disparate views in the US on whether e-commerce
transactions ought to be taxed.  In order to take care of both points of view, the Government had
granted a moratorium on the imposition of new taxes on e-commerce but had also set up aCommission to study the whole range of issues regarding taxation of electronic transactions.WT/COMTD/18
Page 17
108. Finally the speaker indicated that the two ar eas where government was playing an active role
were:  to behave as a "model user" of the Internet and to ensure that adequate skills were developed in
the work force so that it could take advantage of the enormous benefits offered by e-commerce.
Ms. Miriam Gonzalez-Durantez, Head of Sect or M1 (Services), DG1, European Commission
109. Ms. Gonzalez-Durantez began by stating that the next five years would decide whether
e-commerce was going to dominate the world economy or whether it would lead to further
inequalities between developed and developing countries.
110. She agreed that e-commerce technology need not be very sophisticated.  In this context she
gave examples of some developing countries that were providing telephone services for the EU.
However, she said that it could not be denied that there was a gap between developed and developing
countries. Thus, for instance, Internet penetration was several thousand times higher in developed
countries.  Similar there were differences in the cost of Internet access, which could be between 3 and
60 times higher in developing countries.
111. Regarding access to Internet technology, the speaker thought that while much of the
technology was open, there were certain technological elements that were still in the hands of a few
selected companies.  Developing countries also had to face an inequitable international telephone
interconnection environment.
112. According to the speaker, 'trust' was an important condition for the success of e-commerce.
While the EC believed that rules should be indust ry led, governments had to infuse confidence in the
system by setting minimal rules for taxation, jurisdiction, copyrights, privacy and security.
Government intervention in this manner would also help overcome the perceived threat to national
security that some governments saw.
113. A third element for the success of e-commerce was 'awareness'.  According to the speaker
many enterprises in the Nordic countries had webs ites, yet there was hardly any business transacted
over them.
114. The speaker explained that the EC had been fo llowing three main areas of action with respect
to e-commerce policy for developing countries:  Fi rst, the EC was introducing e-commerce provisions
in all its agreements with developing countries.  Secondly, the EC was supportive of the training and
research programmes on e-commerce undertaken in the UNCTAD and in the World Bank.  Lastly, the
EC believed that developing countries needed to participate in every forum where substantive
decisions were being considered on e-commerce.
Mr. Goh Seow Hiong, Assistant Controller for Certification Authorities & Assistant Director of the
IT Security Office, National Computer Board, Singapore
115. Describing the legal infrastructure for e-co mmerce in Singapore, Mr. Goh stated that two
main pieces of legislation had recently come into force:  the Electronic Transactions Act (ETA)1998
and the Electronic Transactions (Certification Authority) Regulations 1999.  Some of the issues they
covered were:  recognition of the validity of electronic documents and signatures, authentication of
the identity of senders of electronic messages, inte grity of transmitted documents, identification of the
date, time, place of despatch and receipt, cross-border legal issues, and the liability of network service
providers.WT/COMTD/18
Page 18
116. He mentioned that the guiding principles of Singapore's e-commerce legislation had been to
conform to international standards and models;  to avoid over-legislation;  to ensure flexibility and
technological neutrality;  and to ensure transparency and predictability in the law.
117. The ETA had four parts:
(i) the Commercial Code for e-commerce, which established the equivalence between
electronic and paper transactions and was based on UNCITRAL's Model Law.
(ii) the Public Key Infrastructure which was aimed at upholding contracts between
parties;
(iii) Electronic Applications & Licences for the Public Sector which allowed the
Government to receive applications for and issue licences electronically; and
(iv) Network Provider Liability provisions, wh ich clarified that a service provider was not
liable for the content if it was merely carrying traffic.
118. According to the speaker, one of the new features of the ETA was the presumption of a secure
electronic signature which could not be easily disputed by a party later, thereby fostering a sense of
confidence in electronic transactions.  The Act also clarified that in the case of cross-border
transactions what mattered was the place of usual business of the parties irrespective of the actualplace where the parties were physically present at the time of the transaction.  The Act gave
legitimacy to electronic transactions under all Government laws without having to amend individual
Acts.  It also made it easy for electronic records and signatures to be asserted in court through
presumptions, thereby enabling dispute resolution.
119. The speaker mentioned that the ETA came into force in July 1998 while the Regulations
(which detailed the appointment and powers of Cert ification Authorities (CAs)) had come into force
just a few days previously.  Only CAs that met high integrity and operational standards were issued a
licence to authenticate signatures;  this was important, as only signatures certified by a CA were
presumed to be authentic in court.  The CAs them selves were protected under liability rules in case
they were sued so long as they had followed the established procedures.  The regulations also
permitted the existence of governmental CAs.
120. Finally, the speaker mentioned a number of documents which citizens in Singapore were now
allowed to file or receive electronically.  These included bank account statements, Central Provident
Fund (social security) statements, income tax declarations, tender documents, sale and purchase of
maps, different types of licenses such as gun licences, licences for keeping and pets, licences forcarrying out entertainment activities.
Mrs. Yildiz Arikan, Associate Professor, Tubitak-Bilten (The Scientific and Technical Research
Council of Turkey/The Institute of Information Technologies), Ankara, Turkey
121. Mrs Arikan described the main achievements of the Government of Turkey with respect to
e-commerce as :
- the setting up of an online export promotion centre in Ankara under UNCTAD's
Trade Point programme(1997);
- the establishment  of SME-Net, an information and Internet service for small and
medium enterprises ( 1997);WT/COMTD/18
Page 19
- preparation of a National Information Infrastructure Master Plan (August 97-Feb.99);
- customs automation project that promoted the use of EDI in Turkish customs
operations (1997).
122. She stated that an Electronic Commerce Coordination Committee involving government
departments, public and private companies was set up in February 1998 to make recommendations on
national policy on e-commerce.  Its report was adopted by the Government as the official state policy
on e-commerce.  Highlights of the policy were:
- providing a technical and administrative infrastructure for improving access to
e-commerce;
- creating a legal infrastructure to support e-commerce;- promoting awareness of e-commerce among industry and citizens;- close cooperation at the international level including harmonising national policies
with the rest of the world, complying with international standards and participating
actively in international organizations.
123. She mentioned that a pilot project was underway as a joint venture between the government
and the private sector to simulate business-to-bus iness e-commerce transactions which would provide
useful insights for further development of e-commerce rules and regulations in Turkey.
Mr. Bruno Lanvin, Head of the Trade Point Programme and General Manager, Global Electronic
Trade UN partnership, UNCTAD, Geneva
124. Mr. Lanvin began by stating that it was important for developing countries to understand that
e-commerce was not something purely 'virtual' and high-tech that could be used only by advanced
countries and multinational corporations.  He believed that small and medium enterprises in all
countries were likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of e-commerce.
125. He felt that that even though business-to-business e-commerce was likely to dominate in the
near future, it was important to pay attention to business-to-government transactions as these would
not only bring about increased efficiency and revenues but would also give hands-on experience to
government officials and policy makers on the subject .
126. He also was of the view that countries doubtful about their ability to finance e-commerce
infrastructure should realise that once a critical mass of e-commerce traffic was reached, users
themselves (domestic or foreign) would start investing in the infrastructure.
127. The speaker also emphasized that success in e-commerce required establishing a chain of trust
that linked a number of institutions such as customs, banks, transporters, telecom service providers to
the exporters and importers.
128. His advice to developing countries keen to adopt e-commerce was:
- build knowledge from practice (learning by doing);WT/COMTD/18
Page 20
- think 'out of the box' (even developed countries were groping with e-commerce
issues);
- build strategic alliances (both within and outside the country);
- promote private-public partnership (as both have important roles to play);
- bring proposals to the negotiating table (e.g. in the next WTO Ministerial
Conference)
129. The speaker mentioned that the current e-commerce agenda was based on four initial
proposals made by the US, Japan, EU and the OECD.  Although nothing in these proposals wasagainst the interest of developing countries, he felt that for the global agenda on e-commerce to be
truly valid, developing countries should also come forth with their own proposals on the subject.
Mr. Ludger Schuknecht, Economic Affairs Office r, Economic Research and Analysis Division, WTO,
Geneva
130. Explaining the preliminary results of a research study done by himself, Mr. Schukecht stated
that an analysis of the income implications of e-commerce had been attempted based on trade
statistics of products that could be digitized, like books, music and CDs.  Current total world trade inthese products was US$ 44 billion, which amounted to only 1 per cent of world trade.
131. The study estimated the customs tariff revenue losses (in case all these goods were traded
online) to be US$ 200 million for developed countries and US$ 600 million for developing countries.
These amounted to less than 0.1 per cent of total world tariff revenues.  The broad conclusion of thestudy was that for most countries, tariff losses from online trade in digitised products were likely to be
negligible.
Discussion
132. The representative of Venezuela was of the opinion that, notwithstanding the success stories
related during the seminar, the ability of e-commerce to benefit all sections of society, especially in
developing countries depended on combined efforts of the government, the private sector and
consumers.  He said that governments must prepare their work programmes with the belief that unless
proper policies were formulated all the benefits of e-commerce could be appropriated by the advanced
countries.  He said that the experience of India was very encouraging for developing countries.  Healso spoke about the work being done in Venezuela where a Task Force on e-commerce had recently
been set up.
133. The representative of Uruguay sought more information on Singapore's experience of
adopting UNCITRAL's model law on e-commerce.  In his response, Mr Goh stated that the law had
come into force only last year and so it was too early to pass judgement.  However, he believed that
users felt that uncertainty about electronic transactions had been removed as a result of the legislation.
134. The panellist from Canada commended the Committee of Trade and Development for
organizing the seminar.  She added that Canada was happy to make a contribution in this regard and
that this seminar showed that business to government dialogue could result in a wealth of ideas and
information that could lead to the successful implementation of electronic commerce.WT/COMTD/18
Page 21
135. The Chairperson remarked that one of the conclusions of the seminar was that maximum
reliance had to be placed on self regulation of el ectronic commerce.  Government intervention, though
inevitable, must have a 'light touch'.  In developing countries, of course, governments had to play a
major role in development though not so much in regulation.  He closed the proceedings of the
Seminar by thanking all speakers and delegates for their participation.WT/COMTD/18
Page 22
ANNEX
List of Speakers
Morning session:
"Potential of Electronic Commerce for Businesses in Developing Countries"
Chairperson
Mr. A. Hoda
Deputy Director-General,World Trade Organization (WTO)
Mr. Christiaan van der Valk
Deputy Director of Policy
Commissions and Manager -
Telecoms and E-CommerceInternational Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
Mr. Saada Baila Ly,
Superindendant telecomCompagnie des Bauxites de Guinee - CBG,
Guinea
Mr. Philippe D. Monnier
Co-founder et DirectorEurêka Cybertrading SA,
Switzerland
Mr. Ayisi Makatiani
Chief Executive DirectorAfrica Online Holdings Ltd,
Kenya
Mr. William W. Burrington
Vice President, Global Public PolicyAmerica Online, Inc.,
United States
Mr. Claro V. Parlade
Senior Partner, Benitez Parlade Africa
Herrera Parlade &
Panga Law Offices, andVice-President, the Arcon GroupBenitez Parlade Africa Herrera Parlade &
Panga Law Offices,
Arcon Group,
Philippines
Mr. Dewang Mehta
PresidentNational Association of Software and Service
Companies,
India
Mr. Bernard Ancel,
Chief of Trade Information SectionInternational Trade Centre (ITC)WT/COMTD/18
Page 23
Afternoon session:
"Infrastructure and Regulatory Issues at the Government Level"
Ms. Michelle d'Auray
Executive DirectorElectronic Commerce Task Force
Industry Canada,
Canada
Mr. Ben Petrazzini
Telecommunications Policy AnalystInternational Telecommunications Union
(ITU)
Ms. Jennifer Clift
Legal OfficerUnited Nations Conference on International
Trade Law
(UNCITRAL)
Dr. Derrick L. Cogburn,
Executive DirectorGlobal Information Infrastructure
Commission, Africa Secretariat,South Africa
Ms. J. Beckwith Burr,
Associate Administrator for
International AffairsNational Telecommunications and
Information Administration of
the Department of Commerce,United States
Ms. Myriam Gonzalez-Durantez
Head of Sector M1 (Services)DG1,
European Commission
Mr. Goh Seow Hiong
Assistant Controller for Certification
Authorities, and
Assistant Director of the Information
Technology (IT) Security Office and
IT Security Competency CentreSingapore National Computer Board,
Singapore
Mrs. Yildiz Arikan
Associate ProfessorTübitak-Bilten (The Scientific and Technical
Research Council of Turkey/The Institute of
Information Technologies),
Turkey
Mr. Bruno Lanvin
Focal Point of UNCTAD on
Electronic CommerceUnited Nations Conference on Trade and
Development
(UNCTAD)
Mr. Ludger Schuknecht,
Economic Affairs OfficerEconomic Research and Analysis Division,
WTO
__________