Digital trade enablers and barriers in the european union

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to research the indicators of digital development in the EU that are preconditions for development of digital trade and also to confront them with the barriers for cross-border digital trade. Thy hypothesis is that countries differ in the digital society development that can be burden in their participation in digital trade activities. The preconditions are measured by comparing indicators/indexes that regards the e-commerce and/or to digital trade (i.e. B2C e-commerce index; Network readiness index, internet users, etc.) while the barriers are measured by Digital trade restrictiveness index and Digital Services Trade Restrictiveness Index. The analysis is focused to EU member states which are divided on two groups: EU14 (EU-15 – UK) and EU13 (new member states). The main findings indicate the EU member states are very heterogeneous due to the ICT development, and also, unexpectedly, some of the EU members put high restrictions for carrying out digital trade. The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany are the best performers in digital society development. At the same time, France and Germany are the most restrictive EU members. For the efficient exploitation of the ICT in conducting the trade activities, the EU should overcome the differences in regulatory framework of the member states but also it should: promote the investments in adequate infrastructure and skills and help businesses to be present on the digital platforms.