Trading Digitally Part 5: What Hinders Canadian Trade in a Digitized World?
The following was written by Danielle Goldfarb, Associate Director, International Trade and Investment Centre, Conference Board of Canada.
India, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and other countries have threatened to ban access for Canada-based Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices in those countries. This is an example of the new types of barriers Canadian and global companies face when buying or selling their products and services in a world that increasingly relies on digital information flows.
Sometimes barriers to digital information flows are aimed at protecting domestic companies (“digital protectionism”); other times they are intended to meet other state goals such as tighter control over information. Regardless of motivation, a ban - or even the threat of one - would obviously create a barrier to selling BlackBerry products and services in those coveted, rapidly growing markets. But the repercussions would be much broader. Businesses and individuals have come to rely on access to smart phones, search engines and other communication tools to be able to conduct their businesses, and enter into new markets. Threating to ban such tools leads to self-censorship and uncertainty - both of which undermine global trade (not to mention other goals such as human rights). Banning such tools outright is likely to have an even stronger negative impact on the scope, efficiency, and certainty of global business activities.
Yet we don’t typically think of barriers to digital information flows as trade barriers. Historically, Canadian and global trade policy makers focused on eliminating tariffs on goods. This was the focus of the Canada-US free trade agreement - and its North American successor NAFTA - in the 1980s and 1990s. And tariffs on goods have been the focus of almost all academic work on trade barriers...
The article is available in its entirety on the Conference Board of Canada website at: