Digital trade: a new driving force for economic recovery, a new frontier in the game of big power
According to data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the scale of global digital service trade (export) in 2019 reached 3192.59 billion US dollars, an increase of 3.75% against the trend, and its share of global trade rose to 12.9%. After the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the development of digital trade has further accelerated. It is expected that digital trade will still play an important role in the recovery of the world economy in 2021, and the game surrounding it will also affect the future economic recovery and growth prospects of various countries.
While driving a new round of globalization, digital trade will not only subvert the division of labor in the global value chain and reshape the pattern of globalization, but also further intensify the intensity and intensity of competition among major powers. Digital trade and its rules competition will become the new frontier of the game among big powers, and the competition for advanced digital technology will become the "new track" of global digital competition.
At present, the world's major powers have launched fierce competition around cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 5G, and big data. Only countries that have mastered advanced digital technology first can gain first-mover advantage in the fierce competition in the field of digital trade.
At a time when the competition among major powers is escalating, the "new track" where countries compete for digital sovereignty will profoundly change the global economic pattern, the pattern of interests, and the pattern of security. Take the European Union as an example. In the new trade policy report released in February this year, one of the three core goals is to shape global trade rules.
The main direction of the current global digital trade rules has shifted from the “on the border” rules of access such as tariffs and shareholding restrictions to industrial policies, intellectual property rights, environment, investment, state-owned enterprises, competition laws, government procurement, industry supervision, etc. The “behind the border” rule is extended. Member states will not only be bound by trade rules, but also be subject to domestic regulatory constraints. Post-border digital supervision rules are increasingly becoming an important part of international trade rules. Developed countries represented by the United States, Japan and Europe took the lead in proposing digital trade rules and propositions, and externalized them into bilateral and regional trade agreements, and tried to "customize regulations" for digital trade through the main front of digital trade negotiations.
Digital trade competition and its rule game trend will have a broad and far-reaching impact on the future world economic and trade industry structure. In this sense, digital trade is an important means for my country to win the initiative in future digital competition, and it is also a breakthrough point for institutional opening and building a new open economic system. my country should serve the strategic deployment of building a digital China, comprehensively promote the construction of relevant systems and top-level design, clarify digital trade policies and foreign negotiation positions, actively participate in the formulation of international digital trade rules and economic and trade negotiations, and strive to break through the possible "rule confinement" formed by the United States and Europe. "Pressure to strengthen rule-based leadership.
