Facilitating Cross- Border E-commerce Collaboration - Based on Unleashing E- Sanjay Kathur

The national platform, in contrast, would require a series of bilateral negotiations and guidelines In both, countries would need to recognize each other’s digital transactions regime, to make cross-border contracts legally binding Address lack of clarity and institutional gaps in the legal frameworks for e- transactions within SA Facilitating practical payments solutions A fundamental issue. [...] Access to these services from other South Asian countries would require regulatory permission from the respective country authorities and compliance from the merchants Protecting the consumer Regulations on consumer protection are uneven in South Asia As policy catches up, firms can fill the void, esp. [...] given strong competition Instantaneous consumer ratings prompt firms to constantly improve product quality, which they do by penalizing erring suppliers and implementing a consumer-oriented returns or redressal policy Consumers in India and Sri Lanka tend to rely on the reputation of large digital platforms – which often go beyond the letter of the law – to protect their interests; reputation. [...] Given forex restrictions, total imports under the de minimis and threshold limits could be subject to a yearly cap per consumer in some countries, of which, perhaps 50% could be reserved for intra-regional purchases Competition will need to be encouraged in cross-border parcel delivery services to address high cost of such deliveries, a concern for B2C segment A regional agreement between So. [...] As app-based aggregator model, this could unleash major efficiency gains through, e.g., the carrying of small shipments in the boot of a passenger vehicle Extend to cross-border cooperation in BBIN, since BBIN MVA applies to both goods and passenger services A unified B2C market in South Asia can be considered when e-commerce gathers critical mass Final thoughts Informal e-commerce already tak.