The OECD Index of Digital Trade Integration and Openness (INDIGO)

2. Global trends

The regulatory environment for digital trade is evolving rapidly. RTAs are increasingly at the forefront of this transformation with digital trade provisions quickly becoming a standard feature of international commitments. Since 2000, nearly half of all newly signed trade agreements have a digital trade provision or a dedicated chapter (López González, Sorescu and Kaynak, 2023[1]). In parallel, many countries are pursuing standalone Digital Economy Agreements (DEAs) and Digital Trade Agreements (DTAs), aimed at facilitating digital trade and enhancing cross-border collaboration on digital economy issues. Key international forums—including the OECD, APEC, and UNCITRAL—are also actively addressing digital trade issues, highlighting the global momentum behind regulatory modernisation in this space.

The Index of Digital Trade Integration and Openness (OECD, 2025[2]) is designed to help navigate this emerging international digital trade landscape providing insights into the evolution of efforts seeking to reduce digital fragmentation by increasing international cooperation in the area of digital trade.

Global discussions on digital trade are nascent but growing fast

Digital trade discussions in non-trade related instruments, as captured by the INDIGO-i, are nascent and have evolved relatively uniformly across policy areas (Figure 1a). Prior to 2020, progress in the adoption of UNCITRAL instruments, such as the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce, as well as evolving international discussion on privacy, including in the context of the OECD Privacy Guidelines, updated in 2013, or the APEC Cross-border Privacy Rules (CBPR) drive change. A significant spike in 2020 reflects agreements on taxation under the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework on Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance at the G20, the OECD and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).1

Where trade discussions are concerned (Figure 1b), the INDIGO-t shows strong progress in the Openness policy area already since the year 2000. This reflects WTO Telecommunications reference paper, the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the WTO e-commerce Moratorium, among others. Moreover, from 2017 onwards, the Enabling e-commerce category starts growing as countries begin implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

Two messages emerge from these numbers. The first is that WTO instruments, given their large membership, are key drivers of global integration and openness in digital trade. The second, that the degree of overall global digital trade integration and openness remains relatively low but is growing. Globally, the world economy is just 8.5% of the way towards what could be considered full global digital trade integration and openness (See Annex A for a country breakdown). In terms of international (non-trade) instruments, digital trade integration and openness is lower (around 6%) but has witnessed a large increase recently touching on many new digital economy issues such as AI, digital identities and taxation (See Annex B for a country breakdown).

Figure 1. International discussions on issues that matter for digital trade are growing

Note: The figure shows the unweighted average INDIGO across all countries.

Source: OECD (2025[2]).

Digital trade provisions in RTAs, while growing, still represent a small share of global digital trade integration and openness

While it is often thought that progress in international digital trade discussions is strongly driven by emerging digital trade provisions in RTAs, it turns out that, globally, these only represent 10% of existing digital trade integration and openness (Figure 2).2 Indeed, while the issues covered in these agreements is more diverse, at present, they involve a select number of largely higher income countries. This calculation takes into account overlaps across commitments. For instance, the WTO e-commerce Moratorium commitment overlaps with existing provisions in FTAs not to impose customs duties on electronic transmissions (NICDET provisions).

Figure 2. Digital trade provisions in RTAs, while growing, still represent a small share of global digital trade integration and openness

Note: The figure shows the unweighted average INDIGO-t across all countries.

Source: OECD (2025[2]).

The WTO e-commerce Moratorium contributes to global digital trade integration and openness

The WTO e-commerce Moratorium, a single trade provision, represents 24% of existing digital trade integration and openness (Figure 3). Put into perspective with the results from Figure 2, this is nearly 2.5 times the contribution of digital trade provisions in RTAs to global digital trade integration and openness.3

Figure 3. The e-commerce Moratorium represents one quarter of existing global digital trade integration and openness

Note: The figure shows the average INDIGO-t calculated across countries.

Source: OECD (2025[2]).

Notes

← 1.  The value of the INDIGO-i, 0.065, indicates that the global economy is around 6% of the way towards what could, potentially, be considered as complete global non-trade discussions on these issues.

← 2.  This observation continues to hold when using GDP weights. However, the contribution of RTAs doubles to over 24% of global digital trade integration and openness. This reflects that high income countries tend to be most prolific at signing RTAs with digital trade provisions.

← 3.  This analysis takes into consideration existing Non-Imposition of Customs Duties on Electronic Transmission (NICDET) provisions in RTAs.