With the trade in digital services increasingly expanding into all areas of the human experience, the protection of user's rights is becoming an essential task to safeguard not only the societal value of the internet, but it's economic value too.

Contrary to the current monothematical focus of trade negotiations on economic indicators, future-proof trade policy should therefore focus on the strengthening of local economies and societies. Accordingly, such a sustainable global trade practice can only be shaped through the protection of citizen's digital rights, i.e. basic human rights.

The Center for Digital Rights in Trade strives to implement the global protection of civil rights in the digital sphere through trade policy. It aims to form a integral component of this counterweight which safeguards the freedom of expression, freedom to information and a free and open web on a global scale.