European organization endorses eWTP proposal

Photo taken on Aug 31, 2016 shows a night view of Hangzhou, capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province. The G20 Summit will be held in Hangzhou from Sept 4 to 5. [Photo/Xinhua]

A non-profit organization in Brussels promoting bilateral digital and Internet cooperation says it has endorsed the proposal to establish an Electronic World Trading Platform (eWTP).

Luigi Gambardella, president of ChinaEU, a member of the B20 SME Development taskforce, said on Saturday he expected the eWTP initiative to become a key policy recommendation for G20 and to be endorsed by the international leaders.

"The solution of today's economic slowdown is to increase the inclusion of global trade and improve the involvement of SMEs," he said.

"eWTP will provide SMEs a transparent and open platform to sell their goods and services globally thus facilitating their inclusion in cross-border e-Trade."

But he also said the final goal should be e-commerce without borders that gives consumers freedom to shop online without limitations. As such it is of outmost importance that eWTP includes consumer associations as its main stakeholders.

Gambardella expected that concrete action plan to implement eWTP will be discussed during the B20 summit. In particular, eWTP should advocate regulatory reforms, and it could draw upon the experience of Europe and focus on similar areas identified by the European Commission in its plan for a EU Digital Single Market, such as making cross-border parcel delivery more affordable and efficient, and Promoting self-regulation as the best way to achieve an effective consumer protection on the web, thus increasing consumer trust in e-commerce.