Description
This paper investigates the emergence of a plurilateral framework for digital trade at the World Trade Organization (WTO) through the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on E-Commerce, contextualized by global power transitions and geoeconomic rivalries. Digital trade has featured on the WTO agenda since the 1998 E-Commerce Declaration and the Doha Declaration, culminating in the launch of the JSI negotiations in 2019 by 76 Members. Initially resistant, China has since become one of the most active participants in shaping these negotiations. Drawing on recent conceptual debates on structural power in International Political Economy (IPE) literature that link productive power and global value chain (GVC) dynamics, this study examines China’s growing influence in the WTO negotiations compared to the United States and the European Union. It explores how China leverages its strategic position in digital GVCs, intellectual property (IP) assets, and technological standard-setting to contest and institutionalize norms for digital trade. By contrasting the multilateral process with regional and bilateral digital trade frameworks led by traditional powers, the paper sheds light on how technological transitions and structural power dynamics shape the contested emergence of a global digital trade regime. The paper offers a novel conceptual framework for understanding regime formation in the digital economy and its implications for global governance and geoeconomic competition.
