Last week, United States Trade Representative Michael Froman spoke about the benefits of tech-enabled international trade during the Coalition of Services Industries discussion on the pending Trade in Services Agreement.  As the Trade Representative for the United States, Ambassador Froman  and his staff are responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. international trade and overseeing negotiations with other countries and, therefore, very interested in the recent trends related to technology-enabled international trade.

Ambassador Froman explained that digital connectivity has exploded over the last few years.  Since 2009, the count of Internet users has grown from 1.7 billion to 3 billion, accounting for nearly half the world’s people.  In Africa alone, connected individuals have jumped from 4 million to 172 million people.  These are people newly connected to the world and looking to engage. 

“Matched with the right policies, [technology] enables us to give home grown businesses the chance to broaden their horizons and create jobs by reaching millions or even billions of new consumers worldwide who are hungry for Made-in America products and services,” remarked Ambassador Froman. “In the old days that small retailer relied on the yellow pages and could only hope to serve the local market.  But now they can reach across the country to 300 million consumers, and beyond our borders to billions more.  In fact, according to EBay, US commercial sellers that use EBay’s platform to reach foreign markets sell to 19 different countries, on average.”

However, Ambassador Froman asked the group what happens when other governments make it difficult for businesses to fully benefit from tech-enabled trade.  “What happens when regulations abroad block advertising content, disrupt search engines, or prevent access to these websites?  What if instead of using the most efficient payment systems, payments have to be channeled through a local bank?  Or delivery services have to be routed through a state owned postal monopoly?”  Ambassador Froman explained that the Trade in Services Agreement is set up to address many of these challenges and encourage our trading partners to adopt policies that encourage tech-enabled trade.

For more information on the Trade in Services Agreement and to read Ambassador Froman’s remarks, please visit the USTR official website.

Learn more about eBay Inc.’s efforts to promote tech-enabled trade.