In response to a question about ongoing e-commerce talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO), U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer said last February that, “I think bringing China in will not help these negotiations.”1 That was an understatement if there ever was one. Indicative of the challenge, recent media reports indicate China has refused to relax its tight restrictions on data flows in bilateral talks with the United States.2 With multiparty negotiations on new global e-commerce rules moving forward in Geneva, the European Union, Japan, Australia, Singapore, the United States, and other participants should exclude China from the effort on grounds that its domestic data governance and international trade policies demonstrate that it is far from committed to putting in place the ambitious rules that are needed on data flows and other issues to foster an open, competitive global digital economy.
