Digital Convergence and Electronic Commerce: Customs and Trade Implications

Abstract

This article covers emerging trade issues driven by the rapid expansion of goods incorporating digital products. Historically, trade bodies and agreements struggled to develop a uniform policy concerning software, the earliest digital product. In large part, the difficulty arose from differing rules for goods and services. As digital content expanded beyond software and became embedded in a wide array of products, the goods or services distinction grew in importance, while simultaneously becoming more difficult to administer. Recent free trade agreements (FTAs) have addressed this digital convergence through electronic commerce provisions that do not rely on traditional goods/service distinctions but seek instead to unify the treatment of digital goods across product lines and delivery means.