Navigating the AI Frontier in International Trade Law

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping various facets of social, political and economic life. Within this transformative paradigm, both international organizations and national governments are actively formulating guidelines and regulations to govern the development and deployment of AI. Meanwhile, at the World Trade Organization (WTO) discussions predominantly centre around matters pertinent to e-commerce. However, at the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee there are ongoing discussions of technical regulation of digital products, including AI. In view of this, this working paper intends to present research on the role of the WTO, specifically the TBT Agreement in shaping AI regulation. The reason to focus on this agreement is twofold: (i) there are notifications of AI regulation at the TBT Committee, and (ii) there are a number of standards being developed to AI. Therefore, this research intends to explore the potential utilization of TBT transparency instruments to tackle issues arising from the use of AI in different products, and scrutinize the pivotal role of international standard settings as a basis for regulating AI.  By exploring into these dimensions, this research strives to offer valuable insights into how international trade law can navigate the complexities inherent in regulating digital technologies in the age of AI. This working paper will be divided in four parts: the first with an overview of the “state of the art” of AI international regulation. A second part with the developments in the international trade system, more specifically the notifications and specific trade concerns at the TBT Committee and the role of standards. The third part will present the legal challenges that the application of TBT to AI can raise to the WTO, and final remarks.