Digital Trade and Dispute Settlement in RTAs: An Evolving Standard?

There were 288 regional trade agreements (RTAs) in force at the end of 2018, approximately one quarter (27%) of which included digital trade provisions. These e-commerce chapters have evolved from simple statements, to more comprehensive attempts to cultivate digital trade. This article tests the hypothesis that as e-commerce chapters have become more common and more detailed, their legal enforceability has also risen. Enforceability is measured using a qualitative empirical analysis of seventy-eight e-commerce chapters in RTAs notified to the World Trade Organization. The first section reviews recent initiatives to map and track e-commerce provisions in RTAs. The second section uses count data and text-as-data to develop a time-sequence, process tracing examination of the relationship between e-commerce chapters and dispute settlement. The analysis emphasizes the trajectory of development, from earliest related provisions in 2001 to next-generation agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the newNorth American agreement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA). The conclusion provides a discussion of the consequences of this evolving relationship for the multilateral governance of trade at the WTO.