For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the street or loading a cart

in a shopping mall. Soon, that will change. Electronic commerce is growing fast and will soon bring people more choice. There will, however, be a cost: protecting the consumer from cheating will be harder. Many governments,, therefore want to extend street regulations to the electronic world. But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation.

Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything from the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs or their rights to refund when goods are faulty. But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence is on the screen. Even in a country where a clear right to compensation exists, the on-line customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to extract a refund for a clothes purchase.

One answer is for government to cooperate more: to recognize each other's rules. But that re quires years of work and volumes of detailed rules. And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober states to accept. There is, however, another choice. Let the electronic businesses do the regulation themselves. They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so.

In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset. Governments, too, may compete to be trusted. For instance, customers ordering medicines on-line may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that tile FDA's rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead.

Consumers will still need to use their judgment. But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than consumers of the normal sort - and the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain when a company lets them down. In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more.

According to the author, what will be the best policy for electronic commerce？

A．Self-regulation by the business.

B．Strict consumer protection laws.

C．Close international cooperation.

D．Government protection.