A couple of thoughts on the new EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement and how it continues the EU's approach of saying more rather than less on data flow rules and exceptions, and sets out a potential new model for future DTAs.
I find it facinating that while the EU is known for its ROBUST privacy protection laws to the benefit of EU Citizens. It does not seem worried if its trade partner also takes its own citizens privacy protections in the same light. This should not be the case.
Interesting piece. Seems to me like the traditional FTA approach is still going to be best for services economies like the UK, Kenya, Argentina etc, particularly those such as the UK, Singapore, Ireland, Hong Kong etc that can be described as ‘coordinator economies’. The key advantage these countries have is that they have no opportunity costs for anything other than services and no goods industries they need to defend. At that point, they can offer to open up entirely in whatever industries their counterparts prefer in exchange for services concessions that will be useful for both and that they won’t need to worry about competition for. This should lead to them being the easiest countries in the world to do a trade deal with - one reason why I think Brexit may actually have been a good decision after all. https://backseatpolicycritic.substack.com/p/uk-comparative-advantage-brexit
Thanks Giles - one point I didn't make was that as you say negotiating digital trade rules within an FTA (or a comprehensive upgrade) allows for more trade-offs between areas including traditional tariffs, GP, services, and higher ambition digital trade rules. There's likely less leverage for counterparties wanting higher ambition rules when it is just a digital trade only negotiation.
I find it facinating that while the EU is known for its ROBUST privacy protection laws to the benefit of EU Citizens. It does not seem worried if its trade partner also takes its own citizens privacy protections in the same light. This should not be the case.
Interesting piece. Seems to me like the traditional FTA approach is still going to be best for services economies like the UK, Kenya, Argentina etc, particularly those such as the UK, Singapore, Ireland, Hong Kong etc that can be described as ‘coordinator economies’. The key advantage these countries have is that they have no opportunity costs for anything other than services and no goods industries they need to defend. At that point, they can offer to open up entirely in whatever industries their counterparts prefer in exchange for services concessions that will be useful for both and that they won’t need to worry about competition for. This should lead to them being the easiest countries in the world to do a trade deal with - one reason why I think Brexit may actually have been a good decision after all. https://backseatpolicycritic.substack.com/p/uk-comparative-advantage-brexit
Thanks Giles - one point I didn't make was that as you say negotiating digital trade rules within an FTA (or a comprehensive upgrade) allows for more trade-offs between areas including traditional tariffs, GP, services, and higher ambition digital trade rules. There's likely less leverage for counterparties wanting higher ambition rules when it is just a digital trade only negotiation.