Towards Reconciling Digital Trade and Data Privacy

The multilateral framework of the WTO, by virtue of its principles of non-discrimination, its transparency requirements, and its enforceability through the WTO dispute settlement system, has proven capable of facilitating global economic liberalisation in the industrial economy of the twentieth century. However, the incumbent system of international trade governance does not adequately address the socio-economic transformation and the complex trade policy challenges presented by a data-driven digital economy. The nexus of digital trade and data privacy in its conceptual ambiguity and polycentric normative underpinnings epitomizes the exigent challenges for trade governance in a global digital economy. This chapter examines and develops approaches for a recontextualisation of trade law against the backdrop of digital globalisation as well as for a reconciliation of digital trade and data privacy.