Study on the Promotion of Digital Trade to Northeast Asian Regional Economy

Society is currently transitioning from the era of informatization and digitization to the era of intelligence.Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence,the Internet of Things,and big data are permeating every aspect of production and life.This penetration presents a rare opportunity for the development of digital trade and catalyzes innovation in traditional trade patterns.This paper first analyzes the inevitability of digital trade development in Northeast Asia.Secondly,it delves into the challenges faced by digital trade development and explores in-depth the promotion strategy for digital trade’s impact on the economic development of the Northeast Asia region,providing insights from various perspectives for reference.

Digital Trade Rules and the Position of Chinese Enterprises in the Global Value Chain

Digital trade rules and higher positions of enterprises in the global value chain(GVC)are both important topics in the context of high-quality economic development.This paper refers to the data of RTA digital trade rules concluded by China in the TAPED database in 2000-2014 and the matched data in the WIOD database,the China Customs Import and Export Database and the China Industrial Enterprise Database to investigate the effects of digital trade rules on Chinese enterprises as to their ascending GVC positions.It finds that signing the RTA digital trade rules can steadily and significantly promote the position ascendance;compared with the digitalization rules on trading objects,signing the digitalization rules on trade modes produces greater effects of driving up the positions,which are realized mainly via the three channels of advancing cross-border flow of R&D factors,promoting corporate digital transformation,and improving professional management.Digital trade rules that are horizontally broader and vertically deeper are in greater favor of Chinese enterprises for ascending in the global value chain,which is especially evident among those in digital industry and processing trade.During the negotiations of digital trade rules,it's imperative to pay close attention to the rules on e-commerce cooperation,awareness of e-commerce importance,intellectual property protection,attempts in big data-related trade in goods,and cross-border data flow,so as to secure the core interests of Chinese enterprises in gaining higher positions.This paper offers great policy implications as to how to sign digital trade rules by China in the future and how to select partners in greater support for Chinese enterprises to ascend to the middle and high end of the global value chain.

Balancing Openness and Protection:Homogenization of Regulatory Laws in Digital Service Trade

Digital service trade has emerged as a pivotal engine for global economic transformation and development.However,the implementation of differentiated regulatory measures for trade in digital services among economies has led to increasingly frequent trade disputes.This paper constructs a regulatory homogeneity network for digital service trade in 60 major economies,and systematically evaluates the structural characteristics of the network and the regulatory homogeneity among economies from 2014 to 2021.Furthermore,this paper empirically examines the impact of the partnership characteristics of regulatory homogenization in the network of major economies on their exports.The analysis of the network structure shows that major economies are more inclined to optimize and simplify existing trade partnerships,and are moving towards more diversified restrictive measures in the regulatory model of digital services trade,which has led to the rise of trade protectionism.The empirical text results show that expanding and deepening the regulatory homogeneous partnership of trade in digital services promotes the export of digital services in major economies.This promotion effect is mainly achieved by reducing the cost of digital service trade and enhancing business trust.In addition,the export promotion effect of developing regulatory homogenization partnerships is better than that of increasing the openness of digital service trade,and the homogenization of policies between openness and protection is more important.This paper provides important implications for coordinating the openness and security of digital services trade:China should actively cooperate with multilateral and bilateral digital service trade partners to jointly build a homogeneous environment for regulatory regulations.In particular,it is necessary to deepen the regulatory homogeneity partnership with Asian and developing economies to expand the infl uence of the“China model”in the global regulation of digital services trade.

Measurement and Characteristics of the Integration of China’s Trade in Services into Digital Global Value Chain

In this paper,the characteristics of digital trade in services of China are measured and revealed from the perspective of digitalization of trade in services.A digital global value chain is constructed and comprehensively analyzed at the three levels of path decomposition,two-way digital connection and bilateral connection.The study finds that the digital added value of China’s services driven by domestic demand outweighs that driven by foreign demand,and most countries engage in digital trade in services with China through simple participation;the role of China’s services in the digital global value chain is shifting from“digital value input”to“digital value output”,but its relative position is still low;China’s dependence on the import of digital intermediate products from developed countries has been significantly reduced,and the country has become the main source of digital intermediate imports for most countries,acting as a“hub”in the digital global value chain.This study comprehensively evaluates the strategic positioning and paths of integrating China’s services into the digital global value chain in multiple dimensions under the unifi ed accounting framework.It provides the reference for further improving the statistics accounting framework of China’s digital trade and promoting the high-quality development of the digital economy.

Promoting the Role of RCEP in Boosting the High-Quality Development of China's Digital Economy

As the largest free trade agreement in the world at present,the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP)has made provisions for cross-border e-commerce,regional trade cooperation,data and intellectual property protection,providing new opportunities for the digital economy development with its functions of optimizing factor resource allocation,accelerating the upgrading of industrial chains and value chains,and pushing close collaboration in international trade.This research consists of mechanism analysis,risk assessment and policy suggestions.First,it analyzes the mechanism of RCEP in promoting the development of the digital industry from three dimensions,namely dual-circulation of digital industry,spatial cooperation of digital economy and digital tariff guarantee,and explores the compatibility between the provisions of the RCEP agreement and the highquality development of the digital economy.Second,it interprets the digital rules from the intention of digital rules,domestic knowledge legislation background of the parties,the effectiveness of digital regulation and coordination in the agreement,and the external environment;it analyzes the challenges that RCEP brings to China.Finally,this paper puts forward suggestions on how to promote high-quality development of China's digital economy with RCEP.

What Is the Driving Force of Future Development of International Trade in China?

During over 40 years of rapid growth after China’s reform and opening up,factor dividends have always been an essential basis for China’s development of open economy.With China’s economy entering into a new normal and the promotion of a new round of high-level opening up,China is gradually forming new competitive advantages in the field of international trade.Starting from factor dividends,this paper analyzes the advantages and trend of China’s international trade in the past,and further analyzes the formation of China’s new advantages in the fi eld of international trade from four aspects.In the first place,as the digital economy is becoming the core force for the new round of industrial revolution,China’s leading position in digital trade has become more evident,which leads to China’s opportunity to exercise its discourse power and formulate new rules and pattern of global digital trade.In the next part,the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)has opened up a new path for further international trade cooperation,improving the opening up pattern with the combination of sea and land,home and abroad,coastal and inland.Afterwards,the supply-side structural reform has entered a new stage,continually releasing institutional dividends,deepening the systematic reform.In the end,the huge demand of domestic markets and its growing potential have driven the utilization of domestic market effect,leading to the development of scale economy and the competitiveness of Chinese economy and enterprises.The formation of China’s new advantages in global trade will further promote China’s participation worldwide.