With Zoom, We Are All Trading in Services
During the Covid-19 pandemic, technology keeps the world connected and allows global trade in services to continue. The WTO outlines four modes of delivery for services trade.
Preventing Trade in Online Fakes
The Administration and Congress are fighting online trade in fake goods such as fake COVID-19 test kits and vaccines and other counterfeit products.
Small and Medium-Sized Global Traders Are Banking on Blockchain
80 percent of all global trade is transacted through third-party lenders and cargo insurers, but the process is complex, can be costly and many banks find it too risky to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Blockchain has the potential to increase transparency, speed and accuracy in assessing risk across the trade finance process, which in turn could expand the supply of credit available for SMEs.
The Growing Ranks of American Solopreneurs
More than one-fourth of Americans work for themselves. There’s no stereotype. Independent workers are spread almost evenly across generations, gender, and geographies from cities to suburbs to small towns and rural America. Will you join their growing ranks?
APEC: Trade Accelerator in the Asia-Pacific & Beyond
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an incubator of trade policy ideas and a pragmatic driver of initiatives in emerging areas of trade that matter not only to the Asia-Pacific region, but also globally. Digital trade is one case study that shows how APEC serves as a building block in the iterative process of co-creating norms for trade.
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on International Trade
AI is already changing global value chains and international trade patterns. Trade rules crafted today in the WTO or free trade agreements will play a critical role in further shaping how AI is further developed and deployed globally.
“Data Localization” and Other Barriers to Digital Trade
E-commerce allows us to order anything around the world with just an Internet connection and the click of a button. As digital trade has expanded, so have barriers like data localization. International trade rules are still racing to catch up with an increasingly digitally connected world.
Online Microwork and Freelancing: Tapping Into the Global Talent Pool
Technology has enabled us to tap into a global labor pool of remote workers anywhere in the world there’s a good Internet connection. 48 million workers registered their services on online outsourcing sites in 2013, according to the World Bank.
Will China’s Big Techs Overtake Silicon Valley?
Tencent and Alibaba are names you need to know. They are leaders among China’s five Big Tech firms. They are growing fast and starting to rival American giants Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Facebook. Whoever among these giants acquires the most consumer information on habits, preferences, spending patterns, and financial behaviors stands to win in our growing global digital economy.
Toward a Global Cashless Economy
At some point between the start of the Thanksgiving holiday and Cyber Monday, did you reach for your credit card or use another secure payment system like PayPal to make a purchase online? You’re in good company: 259 million Americans routinely buy online. Last year, internet sales in China on “Single’s Day” reached $25.3 billion — $6 billion more than what Americans purchased online over the entire Thanksgiving weekend. In the future, the whole world just might be cashless.