70th Session of UNCTAD Trade and Development Board - Item 11: Report of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy - EU Statement

UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

Trade and Development Board, 69^th regular session

(20 June – 1 July 2022)

EU statement (check against delivery)

Agenda Item 11: Report of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy

Dear President, Secretary General, Excellencies, distinguished Delegates,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

As noted in past Board meeting, the UNCTAD XV negotiations also considered the value of the two IGEs established at the previous Ministerial Conference in Nairobi. The most noteworthy outcome of these discussions was an agreement to assess the two IGEs against clearly defined indicators that we included in the revised Terms of Reference of the two IGEs, in view of their review process at UNCTAD XVI.

Therefore, we believe this Board has the responsibility to provide qualitative and quantitative input to such assessment, which should contribute to our consideration of the two IGEs at the next Ministerial Conference.

Following the agreed assessment parameters, we believe that the organisation of the 6^th session of the IGE on E-commerce and the Digital Economy has followed faithfully the orientations given by the membership through the guiding questions, and ensured quality panellists that presented relevant experiences and practices from around the world and across relevant organisations.

The presentations have invoked many interventions by the membership, be it online or in the room. Including instances where participants were asked and were able to further elaborate on their country experiences, which is possibly the key added value that these sort of intergovernmental expert meeting can have.

In summary, in terms of the 6^th IGE session on E-commerce and the Digital Economy, we believe that UNCTAD Secretariat delivered as guided and as expected by the membership. The membership experts were highly engaged, which was also evident in the negotiations of the outcome, of which we take note. We hope that hybrid format of the meeting can be maintained, as it might be instrumental for ensuring participation of relevant capital based experts and thus for ensuring a substantive exchange.

We trust our assessment will be well reflected in the Report of this meeting.

In relation to the proposed topics for the 7^th session of the IGE, we take good note of the agreed topics and guiding questions.

Thank you.