Abstract
This chapter introduces the recent controversy in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Trade in Services Agreement trade negotiations and highlights the increasing tension between privacy governance and regional economic integration. After employing the EU model and the APEC model as case studies on how hard and soft law can interact in complementary ways, as well as how they can be used as alternatives, this chapter concludes that the APEC-type ‘interoperability’ may be proven to be a pragmatic way forward for providing more consistent privacy protections for data flows, which, in the long run, might ultimately lead to increased harmonization in privacy protection. Privacy is essentially cultural and reflects traditions; therefore, as evidenced by the controversy of the Safe Harbour Agreement, exporting or imposing a privacy standard of one region to mirror that of another won’t work. The strategic use of soft law has profound implications for the privacy governance and the associated international economic order.