Electronic commerce and the international trade regulatory framework

The international diffusion of Electronic Commerce raises new questions on international trade regulations and this article presents the more important ones. We show in the part II that the importance of the international Electronic Commerce is currently relatively low but its growth potential is significant. Moreover the existence of so called "digital goods" obliges to redefine the traditional nomenclatures and in particular the difference between goods and services which is the basis of international trade negotiations in the context of liberalization. In the part III, we analyse the consequences of the trend leading to exempt Electronic Commerce from custom ditties and the creation of the "duty free Cyberspace". In the part IV we show that the development of Electronic Commerce has potentially major consequences on direct and indirect taxation rides.