Research On The Influence Of Digital Trade Rules On China’s Service Trade Under FTA Background

With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution,a new generation of information and communication technologies has the rapid development of growth,such as big data,Internet,cloud computing,etc.Enterprises can participate in international trade at lower cost through digital technology.Goods,services,data,knowledge and information can circulate more efficiently and quickly under the background of digital technology.At the same time,service trade has gradually evolved into the most dynamic part of international trade,and more and more presents the characteristics of digital development.Coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on offline transactions in international trade,more trade is conducted online.Digital trade has become a hot topic of negotiation at present,but the negotiation of digital trade rules has stagnated because of different concerns of countries under the multilateral framework.As the smallest unit of trade agreements,FTA bears the interests of countries in digital trade,so FTA presents the characteristics of decentralization and fragmentation.Under this background,this paper discusses the influence of China’s digital trade rules on bilateral service trade under FTA and its specific mechanism,so as to provide theoretical basis for the formulation standards and direction of China’s digital trade rules in the future.This paper studies the influence of China’s FTA digital trade rules on bilateral service trade according to the following ideas.Firstly,understand our digital trade rules and the development states of bilateral service trade,and analyze the development characteristics of China’s digital trade rules.Secondly,on the basis of sorting relevant theories,Starting from the aspects of international trade cost and traditional service sector,this paper analyzes the restrictive factors and specific mechanisms of digital trade rules on the development of service trade.Finally,the theoretical mechanism is tested by empirical analysis,and conclusions and suggestions are given according to the results.This paper may be innovative in the following aspects.First,this paper studies the impact on service trade under the background of 19 free trade agreements signed by China and 21 regions,which is different from previous scholars’ research based on RTA,or from a certain clause or a certain topic.Therefore,it can better supplement the existing theory.Second,considering that most of China’s trading partners are concentrated in Asia,we don’t do regional analysis,but divide traditional service departments and emerging service departments.On this basis,the paper subdivides 12 service industries and analyzes the relationship between the quality of trade rules and service trade from the perspective of the depth and breadth of rules,which enriches the research direction.This paper draws the following conclusions.First,the current formulation of digital trade rules belongs to a conservative type,focusing on national security,personal privacy and data flow security.Second,the digital trade rules of our FTA can significantly reduce the cost of international trade.The higher the economic similarity,the smaller the GDP balance,the greater the scale of service trade between the two countries.Third,due to the influence of multilateral framework,the higher the possibility of developing service trade among WTO members,the larger the scale;Fourth,China’s FTA digital trade rules promote bilateral service trade by promoting traditional service trade supported by goods trade.Based on the above conclusions,this paper proposes the following four countermeasures and suggestions.Firstly,we will actively promote the digital transformation of the service industry,while promoting the deep integration of traditional service departments and digital technologies,more digital technologies are applied to emerging service fields.Secondly,to improve the standards of digital trade rules,we should not only improve domestic digital trade policies and laws,but also promote the reform of key systems in the field of cross-border digital trade and enhance the right to speak in rule governance.Thirdly,optimize the business environment for trade in services and strengthen the training of service professionals.Finally,we should pay attention to the balanced relationship between multilateral and bilateral frameworks.We should not only actively promote the formulation of regional digital trade rules,but also consider the promotion of negotiations within the multilateral framework of the WTO and the development status and demands of digital trade in developing economies.