(Source: China Business News, 2024-12-1)
Recently, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on the Reform and Innovation of Digital Trade" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions").
The "Opinions" propose that by 2029, the proportion of digitally deliverable service trade in my country's total service trade will increase to more than 45%, and an institutional mechanism to adapt to the development of digital trade will be basically established; by 2035, digitally deliverable service trade will The scale of service trade accounts for more than 50% of my country's total service trade, an orderly, safe and efficient digital trade governance system has been fully established, and the level of institutional openness has been comprehensively improved.
According to the "China Digital Trade Development Report 2024" released by the Ministry of Commerce in October this year, China's import and export volume of digitally delivered services in 2023 was US$385.9 billion, a year-on-year growth of 3.5%, accounting for 41.36% of the total service trade.
w88 online sports bettingIn an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Business News, he said that based on the existing data, the goals of the "Opinions" were formulated based on prudent and pragmatic principles, which are both feasible and maintain a moderate reservation for possible changes in statistical caliber.
The "Opinions" include a total of 18 articles and propose three key tasks, namely supporting the development of digital trade subdivisions and business entities, promoting the institutional opening of digital trade and improving the digital trade governance system.
“In the future, we need to not only enhance our ability to accept existing international rules and become more mature at the policy and technical levels, but also proactively export rules in areas where we have comparative advantages, and gradually assume the role of global rule-setters. This is not only the key to enhancing international discourse, but also an important way to promote more balanced and inclusive global digital trade rules," Zhou Nianli said.
A big country in digital trade, but there are still shortcomings
According to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said when interpreting the "Opinions" that in recent years, digital trade has developed vigorously and has become a new trend in the development of international trade and a new growth point for the world economy. my country is a major country in the digital economy and foreign trade. It has a good industrial foundation and broad market space for the development of digital trade. However, there are still shortcomings such as insufficient competitiveness of business entities, insufficient openness, and insufficient governance systems.
From a global perspective, according to statistics from the World Trade Organization (WTO), global exports of digital delivery services will be worth US$4.25 trillion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 9%, accounting for 54.2% of global service exports. From 2019 to 2023, the average annual growth rate of global digital delivery service exports reached 10.8%, which was 4.9 percentage points higher than the growth rate of service exports in the same period.
According to the report of the Ministry of Commerce, in terms of exports, the top five economies in global digital delivery service exports in 2023 are the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, and Germany, with their combined export volume accounting for 45.2% of the world. The only two developing economies in the top 10 are India and China.
Zhou Nianli said that my country has significant advantages in digital ordering trade, especially in the field of cross-border e-commerce. As a major and powerful country in e-commerce, all indicators are in a leading position. The second is the field of digital content products. Some phenomenal results show that my country has strong creativity and market competitiveness in this field, such as the short video platform TikTok, the digital game "Black Wukong" and Li Ziqi's short videos, etc. It attracted widespread attention around the world.
From the perspective of openness, Zhou Nianli said that the Digital Services Trade Restrictions Index (DSTRI) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) consists of five categories: infrastructure and connectivity, legal environment, data governance, market access and intellectual property rights. Dimensionally assess the level of openness of digital services trade.
Cultivation of business entities and promotion of institutional opening
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that the "Opinions" put forward three key tasks.
First, support the development of digital trade subdivisions and business entities. It includes five tasks, including actively developing digital product trade, continuously optimizing digital service trade, vigorously developing digital technology trade, promoting high-quality development of data ordering trade, and cultivating and strengthening digital trade operating entities, and strives to shape new momentum and new advantages for the development of my country's digital trade.
Zhou Nianli explained w88 online casinothat traditional international trade participants are mainly medium and large enterprises, while the business entities of digital trade are showing a diversified trend, and the trade model is more fragmented, showing the characteristics of small packages and high frequency. Participants It has also expanded from large enterprises to more small, medium and micro enterprises and self-employed individuals.
“Digital trade is highly inclusive, lowering trade thresholds and allowing more disadvantaged groups to participate in international trade. For example, through live streaming, many farmers can directly participate in international trade.” Zhou Nianli said, but These diverse entities face certain risks and challenges when participating in digital trade.
The second is to promote the institutional opening of digital trade. It includes three tasks, including relaxing market access in the digital field, promoting and regulating cross-border data flows, and building a high-level open platform for digital trade, and strives to expand my country's opening up to the outside world in the digital field.
In terms of market access, the "Opinions" propose to improve the pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management model, promote the orderly expansion of opening up in fields such as telecommunications, Internet, and culture, and encourage foreign businessmen to expand investment in the digital field.
In September 2023, my country proposed to expand the opening up of service fields such as telecommunications, tourism, law, and vocational examinations. In April this year, my country deployed pilot projects to expand the opening up of value-added telecommunications services in Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan and Shenzhen, allowing foreign-funded enterprises to exclusively operate Internet data centers (IDCs), online data processing and transaction processing and other telecommunications services in the pilot areas. Participate in my country’s computing power, cloud services and other markets.
Zhou Nianli said that judging from the above-mentioned policy measures, the telecommunications and Internet industries have been the pressure sectors for the government to expand the opening up of the service industry in recent years. In contrast, the opening up of the cultural field is special. It not only has commercial value, but also carries cultural attributes. Therefore, opening up to the outside world needs to be more cautious.
“Many economies, such as the European Union, also restrict the complete liberalization of cultural trade through the principle of cultural exception. In digital service trade, the digital cultural sector is particularly sensitive. How to promote openness on the basis of ensuring cultural security and find security and The balance point of openness is an important challenge and focus at present," she said.
From the perspective of cross-border data flow, the "Opinions" pointed out that the data export security management system should be improved, relevant mechanisms and procedures should be improved, and data export security assessment should be carried out in a standardized and orderly manner. On the premise of ensuring the security of important data and personal information, w88 casinoestablish an efficient, convenient and secure cross-border data flow mechanism to promote the orderly flow of data across borders.
Zhou Nianli introduced that in recent years, our country has adopted a series of measures to improve the cross-border data flow supervision system and improve the level of openness. Currently, the legal framework is based on the National Security Law, combined with the Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law, as well as a series of supporting rules, methods and guidelines to form a "1+3+N" system.
Zhou Nianli said that although the path is clear, there are still difficulties in implementation in actual operations. For example, it is often difficult for companies to determine whether their own data is “important data.”
She added that currently, various places, especially free trade zones and free trade ports, are exploring facilitation mechanisms. Some regions adopt a negative list management model, whereby data not included in the list can flow freely; other regions adopt a positive list model, which clearly defines the categories of data that are allowed to flow freely.
Enhancing the right to speak in the formulation of international rules
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that in terms of improving the digital trade governance system, the "Opinions" include actively participating in the formulation of international rules for digital trade, deepening international cooperation in digital trade, accelerating the construction of a digital trust system, and strengthening security governance in the digital field. tasks and strive to improve my country’s digital trade governance level.
Zhou Nianli said that our country has two major tasks and challenges in rule formulation and participation. First, when connecting to international high-standard rules, these rules are mainly formulated by other countries. As the recipient, my country needs to integrate with the existing rules, which brings about problems in cross-border data flow and market opening.
For example, international rules such as the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) impose non-discriminatory treatment requirements on digital products, which means that our country needs to provide regional Domestic digital products are provided with the same national treatment as domestic products, which puts forward higher requirements for market opening.
The second is my country’s challenge in exporting international rules. Zhou Nianli said: “For a long time, we have been more of a recipient and follower of rules and have insufficient experience in leading the formulation of rules. However, as my country’s industrial foundation and strength in the field of digital trade increase, active participation in rule formulation is an inevitable trend. .”
She said that in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, China and the United States are already considered the first echelon in the world, but under the WTO framework, the governance rules for artificial intelligence are still blank. As an industry leader, China has the necessity and ability to make demands for rules in these areas and fill the gaps in international rules.
附：Original link
https://m.yicai.com/news/102381256.html
