Today’s platformization of services was an “unforeseen” phenomenon when the WTO was established. However, through the pro-liberalization WTO jurisprudence developed in past decades, the GATS market access commitments have played more than a marginal role in the story of the emergence of datafication, leaving the door open for big tech companies. Without question, platforms’ associated datafication practices influence human society, in terms of their beauty as well as their peril. The perilous side therefore calls into question whether international trade commitments negotiated in the pre-digital age should be sustained in this datafied world. In the FTA context, Chapter 3 argues that listing nonconforming measures under the Cross-Border Trade in Services Chapter represents the most critical step in reserving a state’s “digital sovereignty.” Such inscriptions ensure that a state does not risk committing to future services and associated delivery means that did not exist at the time of treaty negotiations. Nonetheless, market access obligations do not prevent states from adopting domestic regulations in pursuit of legitimate national policies. Digital trade liberalization must be accompanied by the introduction of data regulations to address the potential risks and harms.

The chapter builds on the author’s article titled ‘Gender-Inclusive Governance for E-Commerce’, which broke new ground by examining electronic commerce (e-commerce) from a gender perspective, and the proposal for a provision on gender equality in services domestic regulation (services DR). Since then, both the provision and the policy landscape have developed. The provision was included in the negotiations on services DR that concluded on 2 December 2021 among the sixty-seven World Trade Organization (WTO) members participating in the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on Services Domestic Regulation. The chapter aims to meet the moment with a restatement of the framework that the article proposed, using original and new analysis by including the concluded text. The chapter generates new knowledge that is actionable for policymakers and stakeholders by responding to three questions: What is gender-inclusive governance? What is the relationship between gender divides, e-commerce, digital trade, and trade in services? What policy interventions are necessary, and why, to meet the moment? The goal is to discuss ways to attain gender-inclusive governance for trade policy at this unique time for implementing changes that are fit for the digital age. The chapter argues that multi-level dedicated gender-inclusive governance can contribute to closing the gender gap.

Chapter three examines several selected instruments created to regulate SOEs at international, regional and domestic level and seeks to determine their effect on international law. At international level the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the OECD Guidelines on the Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises, the OECD Common Approaches for Officially Supported Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence, the ILO Tripartite Declaration Concerning Multinational Enterprises, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Sovereign Wealth Funds Generally Accepted Principles and Practices and the Global Compact are particularly relevant for SOEs. At regional level, public procurement may represent a key regulatory opportunity for SOEs from a human rights perspective and to this end this section provides an analysis of the EU Public Procurement Directives. The section on domestic approaches to SOE regulation analyses measures that have been taken by several States to address the human rights dimension of State corporate ownership.

Chapter 3 explores whether ASEAN displays the attributes of an optimal regulatory convergence area for services, examining a number of factors likely to challenge the pursuit of an integration agenda in policy environment characterized by a continued aversion towards more institutionalized forms of normative convergence and the regional pooling of regulatory sovereignty that a sustained commitment to deep integration generally requires in the services field.