E-commerce Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements and What They Mean for African MSMEs

The e-commerce negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) are taking place at a time when other members have entered into Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) with e-commerce chapters. By 19 July 2022, 193 RTAs covering e-commerce had been notified to the WTO. The most relevant RTAs with e-commerce chapters include the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and the European Union (EU)-United Kingdom (UK) Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). This chapter identifies the main e-commerce-related provisions in the USMCA, EU-UK TCA, CPTPP, and RCEP, and discusses the spillover effects on African Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), particularly in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. The chapter structures the analysis around the indirect implication of these rules on six parameters including facilitating imports and exports; addressing tariffs as a form of government revenue, attracting investment; preserving policy space for digital industrialization; providing for development assistance; and providing for different rights and obligations according to development levels. The RTAs are likely to play a significant role in setting standards for e-commerce rules both at the WTO and the AfCFTA level. The chapter concludes that if the RTAs shape e-commerce rules in their current form, it is likely to offer more opportunities for bigger players in the digital economy, especially from the US and China to continue with their dominance of global e-commerce. Moreover, MSMEs from African countries would struggle in building their competitiveness to take advantage of the opportunities brought by e-commerce.