The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) hosted an independent session on “Borderless Trade of Digital Contents: Next Chapter for the WTO” during the WTO Public Forum 2019 on October 10th, 2019, in Switzerland. The session was moderated by Jin Kyo Suh, Senior Research Fellow of KIEP and attended by Janos Ferencz, Trade Policy Analyst of the OECD, Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), Wolf Meier-Ewert, Counsellor of the WTO, and Kyu Yub Lee, Associate Research Fellow at KIEP.

 

The WTO Public Forum is an annual outreach event hosted by the WTO, providing a platform for participants to discuss how technological developments and changes in production methods, employment, consumption patterns, population, climate, among others, are affecting the world trade system, and how global trade is adapting to these changes. The event regularly attracts over 1,500 representatives from civil society, academia, business, the media, governments, parliamentarians, and inter-governmental organizations. This year’s WTO Public Forum was held under the title of “Trading Forward: Adapting to a Changing World” from October 8th to 11th at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ambassador Ji-ah Paik of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea in Geneva, noted in her congratulatory remarks that the digital content market has been rapidly growing with the Z generation at the center, and negotiations on e-commerce norms are also in full swing at the WTO as part of promoting digital trade. She stressed that it is time to think about the role of the WTO in terms of digital content trade.

Janos Ferencz, Trade Policy Analyst of the OECD, made a presentation on “Trade in a Digital Era.” He explained how digitalization has changed traditional production patterns where movies, music, videos, and other contents were created by large companies, and pointed out the growing role for platforms as a medium to enable individual creations. Stressing the need for intellectual property rights and enforcement in the future trade of digital content, he also pointed out the difficulties in implementing them as each country sets different exceptions when applying copyrights. He added that the emergence of other barriers are affecting trade in content such as licensing requirements, commercial presence requirements, and screening and approval.

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), pointed out that while the digital media market has been rapidly changing in recent years, the WTO system has not been able to respond to changes actively. He further predicted that issues could arise in different areas, such as the rights and obligations of users versus platforms, digital taxes, and cybercrimes. He highlighted that it is time for the WTO to consider readjusting its system and taking actions in line with the changing digital media market.

Wolf Meyer-Ewert, Counsellor in the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division of the WTO, mentioned recent issues regarding intellectual property in digital trade, such as defining the responsibilities of online platform operators and ensuring payment for Orphan Works for which the creator is difficult to identify. He shared his views on the issue of recognizing the sales rights of users who paid for contents based on the principle of online rights exhaustion and the problem of balancing the rights of content users and copyright holders.

Kyu Yub Lee, an associate research fellow at KIEP, took the case of YouTube creators as a notable example in digital content trade, arguing that it is significant to consider them as individual multinationals, not as workers. During the discussion, Dr. Lee pointed out that even if digital content trade is an important topic at present, there is no economic theory model or empirical data that identifies the effects of digital content trade on the labor market. He emphasized that the WTO and WTO members need to pay attention to building digital trade-related data.

KIEP will continue its research on the changing digital trade environment and the world trade system. The members of KIEP will actively participate in discussions such as the WTO Public Forum and further strengthen ties with experts in private companies, the government, academia, and international organizations.

- Title: Borderless Trade of Digital Contents: Next Chapter for the WTO
- Date & Time: Thursday, October 10th, 2019, 8:30－10:00
- Venue: Room S1, WTO Headquarter Building, Geneva, Switzerland
- Host: World Trade Organization (WTO)
- Organizer: Korea International for Economic Policy (KIEP)
- Contact: Ms. Min ji Kang, Senior Researcher, Trade Agreement Team (mjkang@kiep.go.kr)

 * KIEP Session : WTO Public Forum 2019 (Session 69: Working Session)