Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 27, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 27, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleEU and CPTPP (including Canada, Japan, UK, Australia, and others) agreed on March 27, 2026 to proceed with negotiations toward a landmark digital trade deal covering e‑commerce, data flows, and storage—potentially the largest region‑to‑region digital trade pact ever.
By Olivia Le Poidevin
YAOUNDE, March 27 (Reuters) - The European Union and the parties to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership agreed on Friday to move forward with reaching a "historic" digital trade agreement between both trading blocs, Canada's trade minister said.
"The concrete resolution from today's conversation was: let's move forward on digital trade agreement," Maninder Sidhu, Canada's Minister of International Trade told Reuters.
The EU and parties to the CPTPP - a trade agreement which comprises 12 countries, including Japan, Britain, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Malaysia - met on the sidelines of the WTO ministerial conference in Cameroon on Friday.
"If this comes together, as it hopefully will, this will be historic. It will be the largest trading agreement in civilization," Sidhu said.
He said the coming together of the two blocs which together represent 1.6 billion people and $35 trillion economies would be significant.
The EU said in a statement that this agreement could serve as a blueprint "for a region-to-region track of work" in digital trade.
"An EU-CPTPP Digital Trade Agreement would be an enormous success. We need to accelerate, as DTAs represent a future-proof layer of trade agreements," said a EU spokesperson.
The deal would look at e-commerce, data flows and storage, the minister said, adding that ministers will continue to engage in further conversations on what the deal could look like.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Yaounde; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
It is a proposed digital trade deal between the European Union and CPTPP members aimed at improving e-commerce, data flows, and digital trade.
The CPTPP includes 12 countries such as Japan, Britain, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Malaysia.
The agreement could be the largest of its kind, involving two blocs representing 1.6 billion people and $35 trillion in economic activity.
The deal will focus on e-commerce, cross-border data flows, and data storage policies.
The EU and CPTPP ministers discussed the agreement during the WTO ministerial conference held in Yaounde, Cameroon.
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