The Opportunities and Impacts of Digital Trade for Ireland

Tender description

As one of the leading exporters of ICT goods and services, digital trade is already of critical importance to Ireland. A key objective of the Irish Government’s recent White Paper on Enterprise is to place digital transformation at the heart of enterprise policy. Ireland is aggressively pursuing our ambition to become a digital leader as set out in Harnessing Digital – the Digital Ireland Framework. Digital trade is a major platform for Ireland’s digital transformation ambitions. It is critical from a policy development perspective that we have in-depth understanding of the evolving nature of digital trade globally as it relates to Ireland. This is particularly important for informing Ireland’s positions on key digital trade policy initiatives such as in EU bilateral FTAs, EU Digital Partnerships and the WTO Joint Initiative on e-Commerce negotiations. Tenderers should note that, while acknowledging that digital transformation and the digital economy have important implications for trade, this project is tightly focused on international digital trade and relevant international digital trade policy issues as they relate to Ireland. Within the context of an increasingly complex policy landscape, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment wishes to assess the opportunities and impacts of digital trade for Ireland.