UK & Singapore Negotiates on Digital Economy Agreement

With multiple trade agreements kicking off around the world, negotiations to one of the latest digital trade agreements started between Singapore and United Kingdom last month. Singapore’s minister of trade relations S. Iswaran and United Kingdom’s (UK) trade secretary Liz Truss spoke via video conference to begin talks for the UK-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement (DEA). The talk aims for a fruitful connection between the two large economies and creates a successful venture by eliminating trade barriers and agreeing on multiple trade initiatives. With the incoming of more trade digitally, these two countries have been at the forefront of the digital economy with Singapore being one of the largest trading partners of the UK.

^{[Image Source: gettyimages]}

The Digital Trade

With the ongoing negotiation over the agreement, future trade agreements can take this as their model agreement taking important findings from it. This will also be important for establishing rules for digital trade which will act as a model agreement for other countries. The negotiations were done on multiple counts with a prime focus on cross-border data flows and the protection of personal data. In such a cross-border flow what obstructs is the localization requirements which are costly but they are necessary for the digital trade and hence were an important part of the agreement.

The negotiations aimed at balancing the competitive interest of the two countries. Like for example, the RCEP agreement concluded recently having most of the affluent Asian countries including Singapore, Japan, China, contain various exemptions which are for members. National security exemption which is for signatories may restrict data flow including data localization which might play a deterrent role in the digital trade. In terms of competitive demand, one side requires the need for data flow for digital trade and the other prioritize the privacy concern, especially in UK and EU. These all competitive interests will need a strong negotiation for concluding an efficient digital trade agreement.

After getting into the cross-border flow, the negotiation must deal with the intellectual property issues while conforming to the digital trade agreement. The IP issues in such digital trade may include source code or cryptography. Discussion over the treatment of valuable IP is also important when one deals with the financial services and cyber security sectors and which especially relates to the source code and its copyright concern in the UK-Singapore negotiations. Talking about other free trade agreement which speaks about the source code protection, EU-Japan bans the disclosure requirement for source code. Why this is difficult, yet important, is because of a strong balance that needs to be there for balancing the commercial interest to value trade secrets and regulation from the government side given complex digital algorithm.

The negotiations not only touched upon the above mentioned two counts but also in other sectors such as securing open digital markets for exporters, promoting digital trading systems like digital customs and border procedures, upholding online consumer rights, collaborations on fintech, and other growth sectors, and strengthening of cyber security capacities.

Singapore: A most favorable destination?

Singapore has become a major hub for IP-driven companies due to the suitable environment that it provides for the companies. Companies always look for a destination that has multiple benefits and has strong business environment. Singapore always fits in this domain and major industries and business seeks to establish their foot in Singapore capturing the market in the Asia-Pacific. Singapore unveiled its IP Strategy 2030 (SIPS 2030) recently on World IP Day making its way towards solidifying its position in the global IP arena. Singapore has been a leading IP hub in the Asia Pacific. SIPS 2030 aims to strengthen Singapore’s economic growth with a strong blueprint of innovation and IP for the next 10 years.

Author: Saransh Chaturvedi an associate at IP & Legal Filings, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us at support@ipandlegalfilings.com.