The World Trade Organization (WTO), a unique multilateral trading regime, has failed to establish its relevance to the digital nature of trade. This article revisits the ‘principle of technological neutrality’ to make the cross-border supply of services by electronic means subject to the current rules-based trading regime. I argue that the principle of technological neutrality could help resolve a number of thorny legal issues: confirming the applicability of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) rules to the delivery of services by electronic means; providing a guideline to determine the likeness of services in the era of digital trade; and backing up an evolutionary approach to interpreting the GATS schedules of commitments. However, the WTO adjudicatory bodies have been reluctant to rely on the principle of technological neutrality, which is referred to as strategic neutrality in this article. This article urges the WTO adjudicatory bodies to abandon their strategically neutral position on technological neutrality immediately. It also explores ways to incorporate the principle of technological neutrality into the world trading system at the bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral levels.

中文翻译：

---

技术中立不再是战略中立：技术中立是模拟交易制度和数字贸易之间的桥梁

世界贸易组织 (WTO) 是一个独特的多边贸易体制，未能确定其与贸易数字化性质的相关性。本文重新审视“技术中立性原则”，使通过电子方式提供的跨境服务受制于当前基于规则的贸易制度。我认为技术中立原则可以帮助解决一些棘手的法律问题：确认服务贸易总协定 (GATS) 规则对通过电子方式提供服务的适用性；为确定数字贸易时代服务的相似性提供指南；并支持一种进化方法来解释 GATS 承诺时间表。然而，世贸组织的裁决机构一直不愿依赖技术中立原则，这在本文中称为战略中立。本文敦促世贸组织裁决机构立即放弃其在技术中立问题上的战略中立立场。它还探讨了在双边、诸边和多边层面将技术中立原则纳入世界贸易体系的方法。