General

According to the observation report of Huacheng import and export data, "the current development of service trade shows many new features, including the constant emergence of new business types, the accelerated integration of manufacturing and service industries, the deep influence and even reshaping of the global trade pattern, and the greater emphasis on openness, inclusiveness and cooperation." Wang Anshun, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said at the 2022 Summit Forum on New Trends in Open Trade in Services held recently.

China's service trade has made steady progress

In Wang Anshun's view, the service industry has entered an era of both trade and division of labor, and the development of service trade is showing many new features: first, new business forms are constantly emerging. To reshape global trade in terms of power, content, subject and mode, and make it digital, intelligent and platform oriented. Second, the integration of manufacturing and service industries was accelerated. With the rapid development of producer services, the service-oriented manufacturing industry has become an important driving force for the upgrading of the global value chain. The third is to deeply influence and even reshape the pattern of global trade. The boundary of traditional industrial division and layout has been broken. Transnational corporations have strengthened their investment in service politics, and the trade structure has rapidly expanded to high-end services. Fourth, more emphasis is placed on openness, inclusiveness and cooperation. The demand for international cooperation in the service industry is rising. Digitization provides a feasible means. Open cooperation is conducive to improving the international competitiveness of service trade and facilitating countries, especially developing countries and small and medium-sized service providers, to integrate into the global value chain more easily.

The Report on the Development of China's Trade in Services 2021, led by the Ministry of Commerce and jointly prepared by relevant member units of the Inter ministerial Joint Conference on Trade in Services Development of the State Council, relevant local and industry experts, was released during the forum. The report shows that in 2021, the scale of China's service trade will reach a record high, ranking second in the world for eight consecutive years. According to the report, China's service trade still shows a strong recovery momentum under the impact of the epidemic, with stable quality, orderly acceleration of the pace of opening up, steady improvement of the level of coordination, growing regional development, and continuous strengthening of foreign cooperation, becoming an important force in building a new development pattern of services and cultivating new competitive advantages in international cooperation.

According to the observation report of Huacheng's import and export data, Wang Shouwen, International Trade Negotiation Representative and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said: "At present, the global trade in services has developed tortuously under the impact of the epidemic, showing great resilience. The COVID-19 has affected the development of cross-border trade in some specific service industries, but it has also spawned a large number of new technologies, new formats, new scenarios, and new models, which can be said to stimulate the new potential and vitality of service trade. The service industry and service trade are playing an increasingly important role in the global industry chain and global value chain."

In the context of the above achievements, Wang Anshun believes that China's trade in services still has great potential and many opportunities. The reasons are as follows: First, the country attaches great importance to the development of trade in services, and the opening up is constantly increasing. Second, regions such as the comprehensive pilot project of expanding the opening up of the service industry actively explored and innovated to drive the rapid growth of national service trade. Third, the economic structure was optimized and the consumer market was upgraded to play a driving role in both supply and demand. Fourth, China actively seized the new opportunities of digital technology revolution and industrial reform, and constantly injected new impetus into the development of service trade.

Injecting new impetus into the global economy

The forum also released the Digital Trade Development and Cooperation Report 2022. The report points out that since the development of digital trade has received wide attention, it has three characteristics: rapid development; Reshape trade patterns and patterns; It has become a new growth engine of international trade and injected new impetus into globalization.

According to Luo Yuze, vice minister of the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, global digital trade showed a rapid growth trend last year, reaching US $3.86 trillion, accounting for 63.6% of global service trade. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

"The global digital economy has entered a period of strong demand for digital transformation, and from the perspective of the overall development of digitalization, networking and intelligence, it is constantly expanding new space. Therefore, the global expenditure on digital transformation will reach $1.5 trillion in 2021, and is expected to rise to $2.8 trillion by 2025." Wang Zhiqin, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of ICT, said.

Wang Zhiqin said that many cities have formulated relevant plans and action plans to promote the development of digital trade, and all regions have actively established data trading markets from the perspective of cross-border data flow, and established local laws, regulations and policy systems. At the same time, they are also further facilitating digital trade by opening up multiple platforms.

Wang Zhiqin believes that in the process of digital trade development, we should also strengthen international cooperation, continue to deepen, and actively create a more open digital trade development environment. He said: "China will further improve the level of openness in the field of digital services, formulate relevant special management measures for foreign investment access, improve the convenience of the whole trade, and actively build a public service system for digital trade, including the construction of information infrastructure, to build a public service platform for digital trade and optimize the business environment on this basis."

In addition, the report suggests that: adhere to the concept of win-win cooperation, gradually establish a more open global digital trade partnership, also adhere to mutual benefit and win-win, give play to the leading digital advantages of some countries, and also pay more attention to and help developing countries; Build digital infrastructure capacity, achieve equal and affordable Internet access globally, and expand the scope of digital dividends and results; In terms of coordination of international rules, we will constructively promote the development of digital trade rules in key areas, improve operability, strengthen early communication and dialogue mechanisms, and build an international standard system related to digital trade; Actively build an international cooperation platform, especially use multilateral mechanisms to promote the cooperation of the whole digital trade and expand new space for digital trade cooperation, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

Digitalization drives service innovation

"Digital driven service innovation has become the source of competitiveness in the entire value chain. The WTO is still committed to promoting multilateral trade. WTO rules can play an important role in digital service trade, help governments to establish a regulatory environment conducive to innovation and trade services, and balance other policy considerations." Zhang Xiangchen, Deputy Director General of WTO, said.

At the global level, Steven Barnett, the chief representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in China, said that revitalizing international cooperation is the best way to solve the biggest challenge of the global economy, which is closely related to trade in services. A strong and healthy global economy requires a new spirit of multilateral cooperation, which is also a key factor in promoting trade in services.

In the face of the challenges of protectionism, Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Knudsen reminded that all parties should be alert to the challenges posed by investment protectionism and the epidemic situation to the development of service trade, and advocated that all countries continue to expand their openness, including the opening of cross-border data flows, to further promote the development of service trade.

"With the wide application of cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other digital technologies, especially the deep integration of digital technology and industry, digital trade, as an important part of the digital economy, has become an important trend in the development of global trade." Xie Jiayang, partner in charge of strategy and development of Ernst&Young Greater China, said.

Shi Nengzi, vice chairman of Deloitte China, said that in response to a series of new challenges brought about by technological change, Deloitte adopted such methods as establishing a digital development institute, setting up a 5G institute and a blockchain institute for application scenarios to adapt to the digital transformation of service trade.

Shi Weice, CEO of Boston Consulting Company, said that promoting open cooperation in environmental services trade can achieve win-win results and promote economic development while solving environmental problems. China has broad prospects for development in energy storage, carbon trading and other service fields. If enterprises can transform relevant sustainable development initiatives into competitive advantages, they will be expected to be among the forefront of the industry.

Wang Chengjie, Deputy Director and Secretary General of China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (hereinafter referred to as CIETAC), believes that legal services constitute an important part of international trade in services. The rise of digital technology has greatly promoted the development of service trade, which is mainly manifested in the digitalization of trade methods and trade objects. As an important part of trade in services, legal services have gradually shown a trend of digitalization and intelligence in recent years. Many arbitration institutions around the world, including trade arbitration, have improved the quality and efficiency of dispute resolution through online filing, online hearing, electronic delivery and other technical means. The digitalization of trade objects puts forward new requirements for dispute resolution services. How to resolve disputes involving cross-border e-commerce, supply chain finance, scientific and technological innovation and other fields will become a subject for the development of dispute resolution.

Taking the orderly and secure cross-border flow of data as an example, Long Guoqiang, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that to accelerate the development of trade in services, especially digital service trade, it is necessary to make data, a new factor of production, flow as freely and easily as possible, especially cross-border flows. To this end, it is necessary to strengthen theoretical research, solve policy and regulatory issues, and actively promote the formulation of international digital trade rules. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.