As the third largest ecommerce market in the world – and a leading voice at G20, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations – the United Kingdom needs to lead the way on digital trade innovation, worth US$25 trillion to the global economy.
The launch of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Digital Economy Committee aims to facilitate this by providing a stronger platform for British businesses to influence international policy.
The Committee will work in alignment with the UK Government, the Digital Trade Network in Geneva and the ICC Global Commissions to contribute to ongoing B20 Taskforces and negotiations for the WTO E-Commerce agreement. The Committee will also consolidate technical expertise around relevant Digital Economy related topics such as data sharing and cyber security, identifying areas for potential UK leadership on the global stage.
Launched today, the inaugural session of the Committee was hosted at Mayer Brown’s offices in London, led by Committee Chairman Oliver Yaros, Partner, Mayer Brown, with Colleen Rose, Vice President of Information Security, Unilever, and Cameron Craig, Deputy General Counsel, Data Privacy and Digital, HSBC, as Vice Chairs.
“The Digital Economy Committee provides the opportunity for organisations from across different sectors to discuss the common challenges that they face when conducting digital trade ,” said Oliver Yaros, “By bringing members together, we are able to share expertise, build policy, and enable UK companies to lead the way on digital innovation on both a domestic, and international level."
Chris Southworth, Secretary General, ICC United Kingdom, said: “Following the digital trade agreement established at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires last year, the creation of this Committee further cements our commitment to promoting trade and innovation. Through the Digital Economy Committee, we hope to continue to lead on developing new rules for ecommerce at the WTO, as well as promote digital trade and open borders nationally and internationally.”