Digital Trade in EU FTAs: Are EU FTAs Allowing Cross Border Digital Trade to Reach Its Full Potential?

Abstract

Digital trade has been increasing in importance as the ways of conducting trade have advanced in tandem with technological progress. In view of the EU’s recent successes in negotiating trade agreements with third countries the question arises as to whether EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) cater for digital trade in a way that allows it to reach its full potential. This article attempts to reply to this question by evaluating how digital trade has been tackled in a holistic manner in the EU’s FTAs from the EU-Korea FTA onwards. The results show that even though a lot of progress was made, there is still more to be done. The article identifies the most urgent issue as being that of having trade agreements cater for allowing efficient cross border data flows between the parties to the agreement. It subsequently proposes a next step that could be taken in order to address this issue in a realistic manner taking into consideration the value of data protection.