Digital trade in Latin America: mapping issues and approaches
| Published date | 14 January 2019 |
| Date | 14 January 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-11-2018-0063 |
| Pages | 2-18 |
| Author | Carolina Aguerre |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
Digital trade in Latin America: mapping
issues and approaches
Carolina Aguerre
Abstract
Purpose –In Latin America, digital trade is still a marginal issue in the internetpolicy and governance
debate, as well as in the trade regime. However, there are signs that this is beginning to change. This
paper aims to discuss why this is changingand how, against the backdrop of the internet governance
field.
Design/methodology/approach –The research has used a mixed methods approach based on
interviews and participantobservation in one regional process, as well as an extensive literaturereview
and documentanalysis.
Findings –There is a currentscenario for expanding the digital tradeagenda in the regional commercial
blocs with the aim of rapidly incorporatingthem to a process of digitization that will be challenging their
economic foundations. The tangibility of the impact of the expanding digital economy is much more
prevalent than otherinternet governance debates, and these initiatives seem to be adopting a pragmatic
approach,rather than questioning the existingrules that govern the trade and the internetregimes. There
are significant challenges emergingfrom a fragmented institutional background for trade-related policy
in the region and the digital single market might be one of the solutions. Finally, domestic coordination
among competing laws regarding data protection and their enforcement without conflicting with cross
borderdata flows will be a challenge to be addressed.
Originality/value –There is a lack of evidence-basedresearch on the subject in the region. Many of the
accounts stem from normative perspectives (many from scholars with legal backgrounds). This paper
explores the connectionsbetween the internet governance regime and the emergingdigital trade based
on existingpolicies and processes.
Keywords Latin America, Digital trade, Internet governance
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In Latin America, digital trade is still a marginal issue in the internet policy and governance
debate, as well as in the trade regime. However, there are signs that this is beginning to
change. Although in most countries in the region, ideas of “digital autonomy” and “digital
sovereignty” are not major drivers fostering interventions in this area, there is a steady
growth of initiatives aimingto consolidate the national and regional digital economy, in some
cases with a view to integrate these countries into global value chains with local firms and
new digital enterprises. However, there are other policies that are not conducive to the free
flow of data across borders needed for the digital economy. This paper argues that there is
an emerging pragmatic focus on digital trade in the region aimed at reaping some of the
benefits from increasing digitization,as well as a desire to avoid being relegated to passive
“takers” of technology and rules.
The paper has four parts. It first discusses data trade from an internet governance
perspective. Second, it frames the boundaries of the digital economy in the region by
examining seventeen countries[1]. Third, it contrasts the regional profile against key criteria
for the development of digitaltrade presented by the literature and policy recommendations
Carolina Aguerre is based
at Universidad de
San Andres, Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
Received 6 November 2018
Accepted 7 November 2018
PAGE 2 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jVOL. 21 NO. 1 2019, pp. 2-18, ©EmeraldPublishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 DOI 10.1108/DPRG-11-2018-0063
of international organizations. Finally, it discusses the evolution of regional trade and its
effects on internet and digital economy concernsby examining the processes of the Pacific
Alliance and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). The work attempts to balance a
narrative based on concepts from the field of internet governance, particularly regime
theory, with an empirical lens, to frame the context in which digital trade is beginning to
emerge as a distinct policydomain in Latin America.
The research has employed a mixed methods approach. Twelve semi-structured interviews
with policy makers from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, the Inter-American Development Bank
and the Latin American internet Association (ALAI) were conducted between September
2017 and August 2018, with the purpose of understanding how they frame the issue of
digital trade in the region and the current development of the digital trade agenda. In
addition, it has relied on participant observation of the e-Trade and Digital Economy
Working Group of the Americas Business Dialogue (2017-2018), comprising approximately
25 firms with a regional and/or national presence, as well as participation in the side events
of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in December 2018. A thorough document
analysis of the text of trade treaties, national legislation, regional frameworks and other
relevant secondary sources, including databases from international organizations was also
used.
Connecting the dots: internet governance and digital trade
The expansion of the commercial and global internet would have been impossible without
the reforms that were undertaken during the 1990’s to generate an institutional environment
that would be trustworthy and resilient in the coordination of the Root Zone functions for
global e-commerce (Mueller, 2002).The ICANN experience was one of the outcomes of this
process. If the role of the internet had not been foreseen at the time as a crucial enabler for
electronic trade, it is possible that its expansion would not have been so profound.
Since the formation of ICANN in 1998, the internet governance regime has propelled a
steady flow of initiatives that have been developing since the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) by different stakeholder groups and institutions in Latin America.
Before WSIS, internet policy and governance in the region was a matter of concern to a
restricted group of specialists and policy makers in an expert epistemic community
(Aguerre and Galperin, 2015). WSIS promoted the introduction of a human rights and
development perspective as an integral component of internet governance, broadening the
narrow scope of previous discussions, which were centered on technical coordination
issues and the new institutions being formed to address them. Since 2005, internet access
began to be increasingly framed as an enabler of social, economic, cultural and political
rights (Balleste, 2012).
Since WSIS, there has been a persistent increase of national and regional internet
governance forums, the proliferation of civil society organizations and research centers, as
well as the consolidation of trade associations in the internet and telecommunications
sector. Inter-governmental bodies such as MERCOSUR, the Andean Community (CAN) or
the Inter-American Data Protection Network, to name but a few, have included digital
governance topics in their agenda (UNCTAD, 2010). All governments in the region have
incorporated an internet development strategy in different degrees to address the issue of
the digital divide (Orueta Estibariz, 2012). Some are actively involved in the traditional
global internet governance spaces, such as ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee
(GAC), or serve in the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the UN Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) or the regional program committee of the Latin American and
Caribbean region IGF. The ways in which the different regional governments have
embraced the matter of internet governance is impossible to cover in this article, but other
works that have addressed it (Aguerre and Galperin, 2015;Glaser and Canabrarro, 2015;
Afonso, 2005).
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