The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), where Malaysia was one of the 12 signatories, has eased data sharing, according to a case study by The Software Alliance, also known as BSA.

The Software Alliance, a trade group established in 1988, represented a number of the world's largest software makers.

"We have been calling for several years for trade negotiators around the world to realise that we need to address the digital trade barriers as well as the traditional ones," said BSA senior director, Policy, APAC, Jared William Ragland, when asked by Bernama why TPPA was specifically picked up as a case study.

"The TPPA is the first enforceable obligation put into an international trade agreement that addresses truly 21st century economy and individual economy," Ragland said.

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BSA is releasing its 2016 Global Cloud Computing Scorecard simultineously worldwide today. Alongside the Scorecard, BSA had done a case study titled 'Modernizing Trade Rules: Trans-Pacific Partnership Pact Eases Data Sharing'.

According to the study, the TPPA is a milestone as it represents the first multilateral trade agreement to create a strong framework for the movement of data across borders.

Among its key provisions, the signatories agree that they 'shall allow' the cross-border transfer of information by electronic means, subject to a limited public policy exception, and they will not require the presence of local computing facilities as a prerequisite for access to their national markets.

Also, they will not mandate source code disclosure for market access, and they will not impose customs duties on electronic transmissions, it said.

The study noted that the final provisions are expected to align and considerably improve digital trade policies among the participating nations.

Since these countries account for 40 percent of the global economy, the potential positive impact of the TPPA cannot be overestimated, it said.

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It added that the TPPA is an important step in the right direction.

It also paves the way for other digital trade agreements, such as the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), which currently has 23 countries at the negotiating table.

TiSA seeks to open markets and improve rules in areas such as licensing, financial services, telecoms, e-commerce and maritime transport.

Multilateral trade agreements may take time, effort and compromise to complete, but they deliver benefits that go far beyond the negotiating table.

In the case of the TPPA, the result is a bigger, healthier cloud for users of every size and need, said the study.

Besides Malaysia, the other 11 countries include New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Mexico, Japan, Peru, Canada, Vietnam, US, Singapore and Brunei.