Digital or Trade? The Contrasting Approaches of China and US to Digital Trade

Gao, Henry S.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3162557

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The authors argue that China, the EU and the US have established three distinct data realms with different approaches to data governance. These patterns of divergence are also identified by other recent studies including contributions by Azmeh et al (2019), Ferencz and Gonzales (2019), Gao (2018), and Sen (2018).…”

Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 85%

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Digital Trade Rules in Preferential Trade Agreements: Is There a WTO Impact?

Elsig

Klotz

2021

Global Policy

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For a long time, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been seen as the privileged multilateral regime to regulate trade. However, given its slow progress in negotiating new trade rules, countries have increasingly shifted their focus to preferential trade agreements (PTAs) since the early 2000s. Focusing on a timely and increasingly important topic (digital trade), we explore how countries’ interactions in the WTO impact on their approaches in designing rules in PTAs. Using newly collected data on digital trade‐related provisions in almost 350 PTAs signed since 2000, we find that countries’ participation in digital trade‐related initiatives at the WTO spill over to the design of their PTAs. More precisely, we show that countries which actively participate in the discussions of the WTO Work Programme on Electronic Commerce are more likely to negotiate ambitious commitments on digital trade in their PTAs. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that countries which participate in the WTO‐based plurilateral Information Technology Agreement (ITA) are more likely to commit to deeper cooperation in the area of digital trade. More broadly, this article contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of regime complexity and how interaction in the multilateral system spills over to regional and bilateral trade regimes.

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Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 85%

“…. China is known to only include limited aspirational language in its PTAs (Aaronson and Leblond, 2018; Gao, 2018).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Trade Rules in Preferential Trade Agreements: Is There a WTO Impact?

Elsig

Klotz

2021

Global Policy

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“…Data localization refers to legal limitations on the ability of data to move globally or remain local, either due to local storage requirements or de facto restrictions. The US focus on consumer protection involves no need for data localization, while Chinese focus on cybersecurity mandates data localization and EU focus on privacy de facto requires localization (Gao, 2018). In sum, even the major trading nations, who agree on the desirability of embracing new internet-based technologies to facilitate trade, have fundamental disagreements about the desirable global regime.…”

Section: E-commerce Digitalisation and International Trade Agreementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Production Networks, New Trade Technologies and the Challenge for International Institutions

Pomfret

2020

Foreign Trade Review

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In the twenty-first century, production processes and international trade in goods and services are being revolutionized by developments in information and communications technology. For many products, global production networks have rendered the label Made in Country X meaningless. With an increasing number of services, both for end-users and as inputs, being provided online, it becomes increasingly difficult to locate where value-added is being produced. This article seeks to document the impact of new technologies on international trade and to analyse the policy implications at the national and global level. A turning point is identified in the mid-1990s; up to 1995 there is no statistically significant relationship between internet usage and trade, but after 1997 the relationship is statistically significant. Use of the internet reduced trade costs, increased the size of trade flows and permitted greater fragmentation along global value chains. It also created opportunities for new international transactions, for example, based on ‘big data’. The article concludes with analysis of attempts to reach WTO agreements with respect to e-commerce and digitalization and of alternative fora in which these issues are being addressed, and relates the outcomes to the phenomenon of mega-regionalism. JEL Codes: F02, F68, 038

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“…88 China, for its part, has traditionally restrained itself from advancing an ambitious international agenda on digital trade topics such as data localization and cross-border data flows. 89 At the WTO debates, it has by and large claimed that 'Members had the right to design regulatory measures in line with their specific conditions, and needed to protect their people's interests and public policy objectives'. 90 On some occasions, though, it argued for a link between data flow restrictions and 'national cybersecurity'.…”

Section: A the Intensification Of 'Selective Multilateralism'mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Geoeconomic Challenge To International Economic Law: Lessons From The Regulation Of Data In China

Moraes

2019

SSRN Journal

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A clash of economic models with the potential to disrupt international economic law is emerging in the wake of China's increasing global presence. At the center of this clash of models is the claim that China introduces a 'geoeconomic' element to economic relations, while others follow a 'market-orientation'. The emergence of such clash of models owes significantly to the fact that China has proven unwilling to change course to meet expectations of other actors. In an attempt to manage China's competition, actors such as the US are themselves resorting to geoeconomic measures, thereby triggering a 'geoeconomic chain reaction'. The article argues that such geoeconomic dynamic changes the logic underlying global economic relations, with implications for international economic law. The article examines the regulation of data in China, particularly data localization provisions, to show (i) how this legislation advances the geoeconomic goal of helping China to become a leader in artificial intelligence; and (ii) the consequences of China's approach to data regulation over the prospects of international rules being agreed in this area-so as to project the impact of geoeconomics on international economic law.

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Digital or Trade? The Contrasting Approaches of China and US to Digital Trade

Cited by 9 publications

References 8 publications

Digital Trade Rules in Preferential Trade Agreements: Is There a WTO Impact?

Digital Trade Rules in Preferential Trade Agreements: Is There a WTO Impact?

Global Production Networks, New Trade Technologies and the Challenge for International Institutions

The Geoeconomic Challenge To International Economic Law: Lessons From The Regulation Of Data In China

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