Philippines joins WTO e-commerce deal

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December 23, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines announced its decision to accept the stabilized text of the trade Agreement on Electronic Commerce and join its co-sponsors, making the country the 72nd co-sponsor of the initiative.

The agreement is an effort by a group of WTO members to set global rules for digital trade.

The decision was announced during the meeting of the World Trade Organization General Council on Dec. 17 in Geneva, Switzerland, reinforcing the Philippines’ commitment to modernizing WTO rule-making and ensuring that global digital trade disciplines remain inclusive, development-oriented and responsive to fast-evolving technologies.

In its intervention, the Philippines underscored the country’s strong support for incorporating the Agreement on Electronic Commerce into the WTO legal framework, emphasizing that formal integration is essential for ensuring coherence, predictability and the long-term legitimacy of multilateral digital trade rules.

The Philippines stressed that embedding the Agreement in the WTO architecture will help reduce fragmentation, strengthen legal certainty for businesses and consumers, and anchor trust in cross border digital transactions.

The Philippines thanked Australia, Japan and Singapore, the co-convenors, for their steady and constructive leadership in steering the process forward. It also recognized the sustained engagement of participating Members in delivering a balanced outcome that reflects diverse regulatory approaches and levels of development.

Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the WTO, Ambassador Manuel Teehankee highlighted that the Agreement aligns closely with the Philippines’ core policy priorities of expanding opportunities for MSMEs, fostering innovation, enhancing trade facilitation, strengthening consumer protection and promoting inclusive and sustainable development.

He underscored that clear and interoperable digital trade rules can lower compliance costs, expand market access and support wider participation in the digital economy, particularly for smaller firms and entrepreneurs.

“The Philippines’ decision to join the co-sponsors reflects our clear commitment to building a modern, secure and open digital trade environment,” Teehankee said.

“Incorporation of the Agreement into the WTO framework is a strategic step toward ensuring a stable, rules- based digital trading system for all economies, big and small.”

The Philippines also welcomed the Agreement’s flexible implementation architecture, including capacity building, technical assistance, needs assessments and appropriate transition periods, which will support developing and least developed members in adopting new digital trade disciplines in a manner consistent with their domestic capacities and regulatory readiness.

The country emphasized that implementation support is essential to achieving meaningful, on the ground benefits, including improved connectivity, stronger consumer safeguards and more effective digital trade facilitation.

The Philippines highlighted that the country has been actively advancing digital trade provisions across several regional and bilateral initiatives.

These include the recently concluded Philippines-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, as well as ongoing negotiations for the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, the Philippines European Union Free Trade Agreement and the Philippines Chile CEPA

The country noted that these parallel efforts are mutually reinforcing and reflect a coherent policy direction toward enabling paperless trade, facilitating trusted digital transactions and supporting a competitive digital services ecosystem.