Measures on cybersecurity grow: WTO

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have notified around 80 cybersecurity measures to the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee (as of May 31, 2023). 

Cybersecurity is a critical field that deals with protecting computer systems, networks and data against threats, attacks and unauthorized access.

Is this a new trend? Clearly, as the vast majority of these measures (more than 60%) were reported from 2020. 

These notifications related to a wide range of products and situations.

For example: cybersecurity of the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G technology, telecommunications, vehicles and radio equipment, and software-based and network-connected products. 

About half of these measures indicated that they were proposed or adopted for the protection of national security interests. 

Second, in recent years, WTO Members have increasingly used the TBT Committee to raise and discuss specific trade concerns relating to various cybersecurity-related measures. 

Cybersecurity measures

Measures subject to such concerns regulate, for example, ICT products and network equipment, vehicles, civil aviation, banking and insurance. 

To date, Members have raised at least 26 such specific trade concerns, most of them (60%) in the last six years (2017-May 2023). 

These discussions are important given the nature of the subject matter, as well as the quantitative value of the concerns involved. 

Imports

According to WTO Secretariat estimates, the average value of imports per specific cybersecurity-related trade concern amounts to nearly $160 billion. 

In fact, compared to all other specific trade concerns related to the other «issues,» cybersecurity-related measures are the most important type of specific trade concerns in terms of value.

With the exponential growth of technology and interconnectedness in the digital age, cybersecurity has become essential to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of information.