General

Why does an agreement that has not been in force for a long time and is still small in scale receive so much attention? The main reason is that this agreement represents a new trend in the development of international trade.

There is another big move to promote a higher level of opening to the outside world! Recently, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce stated that China's accession to the DEPA working group has been formally established, and will carry out substantive negotiations with the member states of the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), and continue to advance the accession process.

As the world's first digital economy regional agreement, DEPA was initiated by New Zealand, Singapore and Chile in May 2019 and signed into effect in June 2020. This new agreement, which has only been in effect for more than two years, has been highly sought after by all parties once it has been implemented. Not only China, South Korea, etc. have started the application process for joining DEPA, but Canada, the United States and other countries have also expressed their willingness to join the agreement.

Why does an agreement that has not been in force for a long time and is still small in scale receive so much attention? The main reason is that this agreement represents a new trend in global economic and trade development. Specifically, in addition to the existing series of trade and investment agreements, this is the first important institutional arrangement made by the international community in the field of digital economy.

As we all know, digital technology has developed rapidly in recent years. In international trade activities, more and more investment and trade behaviors have chosen a more convenient digital way to realize it. Despite sluggish global economic growth, the digital economy remains resilient. From the analysis of global economic and trade data, the impetus of the cross-border flow of data to economic growth has surpassed that of traditional investment and trade.

Regrettably, under the current regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), there are no special rules for digital trade, and the formulation of existing relevant rules is mostly concentrated in the texts and annexes of agreements under the WTO framework, which can no longer satisfy the development of global digital trade. brought about by the requirements of the rules. Because of the lack of global rules and consistent regulatory solutions, the development of the digital economy has encountered barriers and challenges to varying degrees, such as market access restrictions, localization requirements, intellectual property rights, data privacy, network security, taxation and jurisdictional uncertainty.

Some experts pointed out that the current global digital economic and trade rules are mainly dominated by three forces: one is the model proposed by the United States to support the free flow of data and oppose the requirements of servers and data localization; Exceptions, intellectual property rights and consumer protection models; the third is a governance model represented by China that emphasizes digital sovereignty. Obviously, there are obvious differences in the digital trade propositions of the above-mentioned three parties. In this context, the DEPA agreement, as the fourth force to promote digital economic and trade rules, deserves attention.

At present, China's total digital economy is the second largest in the world, and in fact it is also an important source of global digital economic innovation. In 2021, the scale of China's digital economy will reach 45.4 trillion yuan, and the proportion of GDP will increase from 15.2% in 2008 to 39.8% in 2021. At the same time, the "China Plan" for international cooperation in the digital economy is absent internationally. The most direct manifestation is that although China's digital economy has been at the forefront of the world, and has even achieved a lead in some races, it has to choose passive acceptance in many economic and trade rules due to the lack of a matching right to speak.

To enhance the international voice of the digital economy, China has both the need and the ability. As the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce said, China's application to join DEPA and its active promotion of the joining process fully reflect China's positive willingness to be compatible with high-standard international digital rules and expand international cooperation in the digital economy. Important actions for high-level opening up. On the other hand, China's move is not only conducive to promoting the wider opening up of the digital trade field, establishing an integrated digital trade market with the same rules and compatible standards with member states, but also expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries in the emerging digital field. Bring business opportunities for digital industry cooperation to enterprises and promote the development of digital economy of all parties.

A technical detail worthy of attention is that the DEPA agreement consists of 16 thematic modules such as business and trade facilitation, business and consumer trust, digital identity, and SME cooperation. The module of interest demands is optional. In fact, this is completely consistent with China's goal of "jointly shaping an open and secure digital economic development environment and sharing the dividends of digital economic development", and China's positive attitude and practical actions will further enhance the international influence of the DEPA agreement. to achieve win-win cooperation in international trade.