WASHINGTON – March 8, 2018 – BSA | The Software Alliance applauds the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Chile today by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. The agreement’s e-commerce chapter creates the first binding multilateral rules in a trade agreement on cross-border data flows, restrictions on data localization, and protecting source code disclosure, among others. Moving data across borders is critical for services that sustain global commerce, improve health and safety, promote social good, and enable the technologies of the future.

BSA urges negotiators for the digital trade chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to build upon the provisions established in CPTPP.  We likewise recommend that the US Government pursue possibilities for re-engagement on TPP with the TPP-11 governments, as it recently indicated it is considering.

BSA also encourages CPTPP governments to incorporate the agreement’s e-commerce provisions into other free trade agreements they are pursuing with third countries. Together, the CPTPP and a modernized NAFTA could form the basis for a broad international consensus on digital trade rules that will continue the growth of the global economy and foster innovation.