Guidelines for Drafting Issues Papers

The issues papers which will be prepared by volunteer economies and APEC Working Groups and other sub-fora will form the basis of the information exchange process of the first part of the work program on electronic commerce. Economies are strongly encouraged to contribute papers on any of the given issues, or other related issues. Economies are also encouraged to comment on the issues papers provided by other economies or APEC working fora, including by providing additional information or alternative view points.

First drafts of issues papers should be sent electronically to Australia [leith.felton-taylor@dfat.gov.au], before the end of April. We will then put the document onto Australia’s electronic commerce website [http://www.dfat.au/nsr]. Once an issue paper is on the website anyone - government officials, academics, the business/private sector, consumers - will be able to access the paper, and:

use it for information purposes

send in comments, or additional information

look at comments provided by others

Those with responsibility to draft issues papers will use the comments provided to update their paper by the end of May. Australia will then replace the draft paper with a final version, which again will be available to all on the same website. These papers will then form the basis of discussion at the pre-SOM-II meeting of the Task Force, and a report to SOM-II and to Ministers responsible for Trade, in June in Kuching.

Public and private/business sector

Domestic, regional and international

6. Other issues and information

Including, but not limited to:

Details of documents, studies, etc., of interest produced on this issue

Details of meetings, conferences and seminars in 1998 on this issue

7. Questions that APEC should be asking about this issue

8. Conclusion: implications for APEC and what APEC may be able to contribute

TOPICS FOR ISSUES PAPERS

The following list of suggested topics for Issues Papers are drawn from the second and third element proposed for the APEC workplan in the Australian Penang SOM discussion paper: II. Key issues associated with conducting business using electronic commerce, both within and across borders, and, III. Relationship between the government and the private/business sector in the development of electronic commerce, including their respective roles.

The following list is by no means exhaustive, and many of the issues overlap:

Issues related to trust in information systems and electronic transactions

Security

Privacy

Authentication

Digital signatures

Encryption

Intellectual Property Rights

Issues related to access to the information infrastructure

Telecommunications infrastructure

Bandwidth

Cost-effectiveness

Standards

Education

Issues related to regulation

Taxation

Tariffs

Content

Trade Law/WTO rules

Issues related to logistics

Payment systems

Delivery systems

Paperless systems

Issues relating to Government and private/business sector relationship

Appropriate balance between government regulation and industry self regulation

How the government and the private/business sector can best work together

Role and responsibility of government

Role and responsibility of private/business sector, including commercial ethics

Working together to reduce existing barriers to electronic commerce

Other issues

This page was last updated on 12 March, 2008