There was a “strong push at the dialogue by the EU for a digital trade agreement between CPTPP and the EU,” a CPTPP member nation official confirmed, adding it had “good support around the room.”
The meeting between the two largest trading blocs, which together represent nearly a third of the global economy, took place on Friday afternoon, as the World Trade Organization scrambles to advance long-stalled reforms — including efforts to keep digital trade permanently tariff-free.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič highlighted the bloc’s existing digital trade agreements — or DTAs — with CPTPP member countries Singapore and South Korea, and that it had launched negotiations this month on a similar accord with Canada.
“This could serve as a blueprint — an inspiration — for a region-to-region track of work in this area and as the next major task for our teams to begin preparing. An EU-CPTPP DTA would be an enormous success. We need to accelerate, as DTAs represent a future-proof layer of trade agreements,” an EU official cited Šefčovič as saying.
The nearly 40 nations in the EU and Indo-Pacific CPTPP trade blocs are on a quest to defend the world trade system, which has been buffeted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war.
“We’ve got a common understanding around these three plurilaterals, but we also have common understanding that we need to see reforms,” Sidhu said.
“How do we make sure that the WTO works in the current context?” he added. “Because it cannot be status quo. We cannot just ask for another two years on e-commerce and continue to move forward,” he said.
This report has been updated.