the General Council agreed to hold “dedicated” discussions on cross-cutting issues, i.e. issues whose potential relevance may “cut across” different agreements of the multilateral system. So far, there have been five discussions dedicated to electronic commerce, held under General Council’s auspices.
The issues discussed included: classification of the content of certain electronic transmissions; development-related issues; fiscal implications of e-commerce; relationship (and possible substitution effects) between e-commerce and traditional forms of commerce; imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions; competition; jurisdiction and applicable law/other legal issues.
Participants in the dedicated discussions hold the view that the examination of these cross-cutting issues is unfinished, and that further work to clarify