The EU Data Protection Law Reform: Challenges for Service Trade Liberalization and Possible Approaches for Harmonizing Privacy Standards into the Context of GATS

Abstract

With a view to ensuring the privacy rights of EU residents, the European Commission made a proposal on the ‘EU Data Protection Regulation’, which has been given an extraterritorial effect when it comes to cross-border processing of EU-residents’ personal data. However, the ‘adequacy assessment’ provided therein might lead to the EU’s violations of the GATS. In the first part of this paper, an overview of the provisions of the proposed Regulation is conducted. This is followed by an examination of whether the adequacy assessment is consistent with EU’s obligations under the GATS. Although there has not been a case regarding such issues in the WTO thus far, based on the preceding rationale of the Dispute Settlement Body, the author presumes that the adequacy assessment is very likely to be determined inconsistent with the abovementioned rules within the GATS. Hence, it is for the author to provide possible methods to harmonize the interests of privacy and data protection with free trade in the context of GATS in the subsequent section of this paper by utilizing the general exception clause and adapting relevant privacy standards to Article 6.5 of the GATS.