Temporal and spatial evolution of global major grain trade patterns

The complex and volatile international landscape has significantly impacted global grain supply security. This study uses a complex network analysis model to examine the evolution and trends of the global major grain trade from 1990 to 2020, focusing on network topology, centrality ranking, and community structure. There are three major findings. First, the global major grain trade network has expanded in scale, with a growing emphasis on diversification and balance. During the study period, the United States, Canada, China, and Brazil were the core nodes of the network. Grain-exporting countries were mainly situated in Asia, the Americas, and Europe, and importing countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Second, a significant increase in the number of high centrality countries with high export capacity occurred, benefiting from natural advantages such as fertile land and favorable climates. Third, the main global grain trade network is divided into four communities, with the Americas-Europe community being the largest and most widespread. The formation of the community pattern was influenced by geographic proximity, driven by the core exporting countries. Therefore, the world needs to enhance the existing trade model, promote the multi-polarization of the grain trade network, and establish a global vision for the future community. Countries and regions should participate actively in global grain trade security governance and institutional reform, expand trade links with other countries, and optimize import and export policies to reduce trade risks.

Impact of BRICS Trade Facilitation on China's Exports Using Cross-Border E-Commerce

With the rapid growth of the global digital economy, cross-border e-commerce, as an emerging form of trade, has gradually become a powerful engine to promote the development of global trade. BRICS is an important force in the global economy, and the progress of the BRICS countries' trade facilitation level has an important impact on the global trade environment. This paper conducts an in-depth study of the dynamic changes in BRICS trade facilitation from 2013 to 2022, and uses an extended gravity model to analyze the specific impact of this change on China's exports using cross-border e-commerce. The results show that although the BRICS countries have made some progress in trade facilitation, the overall level still needs to be improved, and there are obvious differences among member countries. However, the improvement of trade facilitation among BRICS countries has undoubtedly brought significant positive effects to China's exports using cross-border e-commerce.

Electricity Carbon Quota Trading Scheme based on Certificateless Signature and Blockchain

The carbon tradingmarket can promote“carbon peaking”and“carbon neutrality”at low cost,but carbon emission quotas face attacks such as data forgery,tampering,counterfeiting,and replay in the electricity trading market.Certificateless signatures are a new cryptographic technology that can address traditional cryptography’s general essential certificate requirements and avoid the problem of crucial escrowbased on identity cryptography.However,most certificateless signatures still suffer fromvarious security flaws.We present a secure and efficient certificateless signing scheme by examining the security of existing certificateless signature schemes.To ensure the integrity and verifiability of electricity carbon quota trading,we propose an electricity carbon quota trading scheme based on a certificateless signature and blockchain.Our scheme utilizes certificateless signatures to ensure the validity and nonrepudiation of transactions and adopts blockchain technology to achieve immutability and traceability in electricity carbon quota transactions.In addition,validating electricity carbon quota transactions does not require time-consuming bilinear pairing operations.The results of the analysis indicate that our scheme meets existential unforgeability under adaptive selective message attacks,offers conditional identity privacy protection,resists replay attacks,and demonstrates high computing and communication performance.

An Energy Trading Method Based on Alliance Blockchain and Multi-Signature

Blockchain,known for its secure encrypted ledger,has garnered attention in financial and data transfer realms,including the field of energy trading.However,the decentralized nature and identity anonymity of user nodes raise uncertainties in energy transactions.The broadcast consensus authentication slows transaction speeds,and frequent single-point transactions in multi-node settings pose key exposure risks without protective measures during user signing.To address these,an alliance blockchain scheme is proposed,reducing the resource-intensive identity verification among nodes.It integrates multi-signature functionality to fortify user resources and transac-tion security.A novel multi-signature process within this framework involves neutral nodes established through central nodes.These neutral nodes participate in multi-signature’s signing and verification,ensuring user identity and transaction content privacy.Reducing interactions among user nodes enhances transaction efficiency by minimizing communication overhead during verification and consensus stages.Rigorous assessments on reliability and operational speed highlight superior security performance,resilient against conventional attack vectors.Simulation shows that compared to traditional solutions,this scheme has advantages in terms of running speed.In conclusion,the alliance blockchain framework introduces a novel approach to tackle blockchain’s limitations in energy transactions.The integrated multi-signature process,involving neutral nodes,significantly enhances security and privacy.The scheme’s efficiency,validated through analytical assessments and simulations,indicates robustness against security threats and improved transactional speeds.This research underscores the potential for improved security and efficiency in blockchain-enabled energy trading systems.

“China Shock”or China Dividend?-China GVC Participation’s Effects on Trading Partners’Technological Progress

This paper explores the effects of China’s global value chain(GVC)participation on technological progress in trading-partner countries based on estimated data on value-added trade between China and 52 trading partners.We find that,first,although China’s exports lowered the total factor productivity(TFP)of its trading partners(competitive effect),its imports greatly increased trading partners’TFP(effect of scale).This implies that China’s GVC participation is beneficial to its trading partners’technological progress in the form of a considerable technology dividend effect.Second,China’s export dividend effect compensates for the negative effect of Chinese competition on trading partners’technological progress;the innovation effects attributable to China’s imports reinforce the positive effects of scale on technological progress.When innovation is factored in,the China dividend thus becomes further reinforced.Third,China’s merchandise imports have a diminishing positive effect on technological progress in trading partners as geographical distance increases,but trade in services transcends geographical boundaries,and the positive technological progress effect of China’s service imports do not diminish as distance increases.We find that the“China dividend”from China’s GVC participation is a significant contributor to technological progress in partner nations,and China’s imports are conducive to innovation and technological progress in developed countries in the long run.

How Can Foreign Trade Be Stabilized?

At an economy-themed press conference held on the day of the Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress,Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao admitted that the situation of foreign trade situation is still"very severe"this year.When it comes to the future policies for stabilizing foreign trade,Wang Wentao said that the government will provide better financial services forforeign trade enterprises.

Facilitating Trade Across Borders

“The Government Work Report noted that‘development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor will be accelerated’,”stated Wei Zhaohui,member of the Standing Committee of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC)and director-general of the Guangxi International Expo Affairs Bureau,in an interview after the Second Session of the 14th National People’s Congress on March 5.

Optimal Operation Strategy of Electricity-Hydrogen Regional Energy System under Carbon-Electricity Market Trading

Given the“double carbon”objective and the drive toward low-carbon power,investigating the integration and interaction within the carbon-electricity market can enhance renewable energy utilization and facilitate energy conservation and emission reduction endeavors.However,further research is necessary to explore operational optimization methods for establishing a regional energy system using Power-to-Hydrogen(P2H)technology,focusing on participating in combined carbon-electricity market transactions.This study introduces an innovative Electro-Hydrogen Regional Energy System(EHRES)in this context.This system integrates renewable energy sources,a P2H system,cogeneration units,and energy storage devices.The core purpose of this integration is to optimize renewable energy utilization and minimize carbon emissions.This study aims to formulate an optimal operational strategy for EHRES,enabling its dynamic engagement in carbon-electricity market transactions.The initial phase entails establishing the technological framework of the electricity-hydrogen coupling system integrated with P2H.Subsequently,an analysis is conducted to examine the operational mode of EHRES as it participates in carbon-electricity market transactions.Additionally,the system scheduling model includes a stepped carbon trading price mechanism,considering the combined heat and power generation characteristics of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell(HFC).This facilitates the establishment of an optimal operational model for EHRES,aiming to minimize the overall operating cost.The simulation example illustrates that the coordinated operation of EHRES in carbon-electricity market transactions holds the potential to improve renewable energy utilization and reduce the overall system cost.This result carries significant implications for attaining advantages in both low-carbon and economic aspects.

Trading in Fast-ChangingMarkets withMeta-Reinforcement Learning

How to find an effective trading policy is still an open question mainly due to the nonlinear and non-stationary dynamics in a financial market.Deep reinforcement learning,which has recently been used to develop trading strategies by automatically extracting complex features from a large amount of data,is struggling to deal with fastchanging markets due to sample inefficiency.This paper applies the meta-reinforcement learning method to tackle the trading challenges faced by conventional reinforcement learning(RL)approaches in non-stationary markets for the first time.In our work,the history trading data is divided into multiple task data and for each of these data themarket condition is relatively stationary.Then amodel agnosticmeta-learning(MAML)-based tradingmethod involving a meta-learner and a normal learner is proposed.A trading policy is learned by the meta-learner across multiple task data,which is then fine-tuned by the normal learner through a small amount of data from a new market task before trading in it.To improve the adaptability of the MAML-based method,an ordered multiplestep updating mechanism is also proposed to explore the changing dynamic within a task market.The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed MAML-based trading methods can increase the annualized return rate by approximately 180%,200%,and 160%,increase the Sharpe ratio by 180%,90%,and 170%,and decrease the maximum drawdown by 30%,20%,and 40%,compared to the traditional RL approach in three stock index future markets,respectively.

The Tenth Anniversary of Free Trade Pilot Zones in China:Fundamental Experiences and Enhancement Strategies

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the country has established 21 Free Trade Pilot Zones(FTZs),achieving significant pioneering results in reform and opening up and creating a strong demonstrative effect nationwide.The basic experience from a decade of FTZs includes:adhering to the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee;combining top-level design with encouragement of grassroots innovation;leveraging the distinct characteristics and strengths of FTZs to form a differentiated development pattern;maintaining the integration of opening up with domestic reforms;using openness to drive reforms;and organically combining openness with national security assurance.Under the current and future new circumstances,China’s FTZs face new challenges and tasks.In accordance with the directives of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,an enhancement strategy for the FTZs needs to be implemented.This involves the following:First,accurately understanding and responding to the changing situation to create strategic opportunities.Second,shifting paradigms to implement innovation-driven strategies,using the new development pattern concept to guide the reform experiments and construction of the FTZs.Third,granting more autonomy to FTZs for reforms,pursuing progress while maintaining stability,and solidly advancing the reform experiments in the FTZs.Fourth,orderly expanding the opening up of the service sector and cautiously advancing the internationalization of the renminbi.Fifth,promoting innovative development in trade to build a strong trade nation.Sixth,establishing synergy with bilateral FTZs,Belt and Road cooperation,and national diplomatic strategies to enhance the linkage effect.

Analysis of the Impact of Technical Trade Barriers on the Export of Toys-Based on Analysis of Zhejiang,China

Technical barriers to trade,as a non-tariff barrier,have an increasing impact on the international market.As a major province in toy exports,Zhejiang Province’s toy export trade is therefore greatly hindered.This article aims to explore the impact of technical trade barriers on toy exports in Zhejiang Province and analyze countermeasures.Through literature review and some empirical analysis,it is found that technical trade barriers have greatly promoted the development of Zhejiang’s toy industry;however,they have also subjected it to impacts and pressures such as cost and technology.In response to the impact of technical trade barriers on toy exports,this article proposes corresponding countermeasures to avoid such barriers:firstly,establish a quality management system that complies with export product regulations to ensure that the products produced can meet international requirements and standards;secondly,reduce dependence on overseas markets;then enhance one’s own technology,and strengthen product innovation,in order to enhance the international competitiveness of the product and oneself;in addition,we should also explore diversified markets and expand the sales channels and coverage of our products.

An analysis of agarwood trade patterns,historical perspectives,and species identification challenges:repercussions for importing nations

Background:Agarwood,primarily derived from the Aquilaria and Gyrinops genera,holds significant economic importance.However,there is a lack of comprehensive investigations providing guidance to importing nations regarding cultivation quantities and expected yields of Agarwood from distinct species.This study aims to address this gap by exploring the historical context and trade evolution of Agarwood,highlighting its global importance,and the challenges associated with securing accurate species information.Method:On-site visits to Agarwood cultivation sites were conducted to gain a nuanced understanding of Aquilaria species and their cultivation requirements.Additionally,a thorough analysis of global export and import data for Agarwood products over the last decade was undertaken.Results:China Mainland emerged as the leading exporter of Agarwood,averaging an annual export value of USD 1 million.India’s substantial exports challenge the prevailing notion of limited Agarwood production within its borders.Hong Kong and Singapore are pivotal distribution hubs,while Hong Kong and Taipei feature prominently as import destinations.Our analysis uncovers anomalies in the representation of Agarwood producers from 2001 to 2008,suggesting potential misclassification of Aquilaria Agarwood as Gyrinops in global export information.These findings underscore the urgency of investigating classification and reporting practices in the Agarwood trade.Furthermore,A.filaria emerges as a notable source,while A.malaccensis is decline in prominence.Conclusion:This study provides crucial insights for policymakers,stakeholders,and industry players seeking to make informed decisions in the Agarwood trade landscape.The results highlight the need for accurate species identification,classification,and reporting practices to ensure sustainable cultivation and trade of Agarwood.

Analysis of the Characteristics and Development Direction of Services Trade in Shandong Province of China

Shandong is a significant province for foreign trade in China;however,it still faces shortcomings in the development of its service trade,as outlined below.Firstly,the scale of service trade is limited.Shandong’s service trade volume ranked sixth in China in 2022,lagging considerably behind Shanghai,Guangdong,Beijing,Zhejiang,and Jiangsu.Secondly,the proportion of service trade in Shandong compared to the overall national services trade volume falls below the national average,with the per capita scale even lower than the national average.Thirdly,Shandong’s service trade accounts for less than 10% of the province’s foreign trade,which is 3 percentage points below the national average.The insufficient development of Shandong’s service trade is mainly attributed to the weak performance of its own service industry and the limited scale of attracting foreign services investment.Accelerating the development of producer services in Shandong,promoting the intelligent upgrading of consumer services,and continuously promoting reform and opening up in the service sector will be conducive to achieving high-quality development of services trade in Shandong.

SWOT Analysis and Recommendations for Enhancing Sino-Russian Agricultural Trade Cooperation

With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict,the changes in agricultural trade between China and Russia are receiving more and more attention.This study analyzes the current status of Sino-Russian agricultural trade and employs a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths,weaknesses,opportunities,and threats within their agricultural trading activities.The findings suggest there are opportunities for further optimization and enhancement in the Sino-Russian agricultural trade.Based on this,suggestions proposed include accelerating the development of transportation hubs,facilitating agricultural trade,refining legal frameworks for agricultural exports,and expediting the establishment of economic cooperation zones.

China Remains Africa’s Top Trading Partner

China has remained Africa’s largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years,with bilateral trade reaching a record$282.1 billion in 2023,Ministry of Commerce official Jiang Wei said at a press conference on 31 January.Economic and trade cooperation is the ballast and propeller of China-Africa relations,he said.

Research on the Threshold Effect of China’s Pharmaceutical Export Trade on Internal and External R&D Investment

Objective To study the threshold effect of export trade on internal and external R&D investment in China’s pharmaceutical industry,and to provide reference for some pharmaceutical enterprises to improve the investment.Methods The panel data of pharmaceutical industry in 25 provinces and cities in China from 2009 to 2019 were selected to conduct empirical analysis by establishing a threshold regression model,and a better export trade interval was obtained.Results and Conclusion There is a threshold value for the effect of new product export on both internal and external R&D expenditures,and the threshold values are 845.2788 million yuan and 318.4198 million yuan,respectively.There is a single threshold effect of export trade on both internal and external R&D investment in China’s pharmaceutical industry,and the effect of export trade on internal and external R&D investment changes from negative to positive as the export trade develops from low to high.

Innovative Exploration and Research on International Exchange and Cooperation Mechanisms under the Background of Hainan Free Trade Port

In order to explore and foster innovation in international exchange and cooperation,this study focuses on the background of the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port.It delves into the current development status,characteristic demands,and potential challenges of its international exchange and cooperation mechanisms.Through a comprehensive analysis of relevant cases,survey questionnaires,and literature,this study aims to provide feasible innovative models and recommendations to promote the sustained development of the Hainan Free Trade Port in the field of international exchange and cooperation,injecting new vitality into China’s economic globalization.This exploration contributes to a deeper understanding of the development of free trade ports and provides insights and references for other countries and regions.

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.

Blockchain-Based Secure and Fair IoT Data Trading System with Bilateral Authorization

These days,data is regarded as a valuable asset in the era of the data economy,which demands a trading platform for buying and selling data.However,online data trading poses challenges in terms of security and fairness because the seller and the buyer may not fully trust each other.Therefore,in this paper,a blockchain-based secure and fair data trading system is proposed by taking advantage of the smart contract and matchmaking encryption.The proposed system enables bilateral authorization,where data trading between a seller and a buyer is accomplished only if their policies,required by each other,are satisfied simultaneously.This can be achieved by exploiting the security features of the matchmaking encryption.To guarantee non-repudiation and fairness between trading parties,the proposed system leverages a smart contract to ensure that the parties honestly carry out the data trading protocol.However,the smart contract in the proposed system does not include complex cryptographic operations for the efficiency of onchain processes.Instead,these operations are carried out by off-chain parties and their results are used as input for the on-chain procedure.The system also uses an arbitration protocol to resolve disputes based on the trading proof recorded on the blockchain.The performance of the protocol is evaluated in terms of off-chain computation overhead and on-chain gas consumption.The results of the experiments demonstrate that the proposed protocols can enable the implementation of a cost-effective data trading system.

Multi-Blockchain Based Data Trading Markets With Novel Pricing Mechanisms

In the era of big data,there is an urgent need to establish data trading markets for effectively releasing the tremendous value of the drastically explosive data.Data security and data pricing,however,are still widely regarded as major challenges in this respect,which motivate this research on the novel multi-blockchain based framework for data trading markets and their associated pricing mechanisms.In this context,data recording and trading are conducted separately within two separate blockchains:the data blockchain(DChain) and the value blockchain(VChain).This enables the establishment of two-layer data trading markets to manage initial data trading in the primary market and subsequent data resales in the secondary market.Moreover,pricing mechanisms are then proposed to protect these markets against strategic trading behaviors and balance the payoffs of both suppliers and users.Specifically,in regular data trading on VChain-S2D,two auction models are employed according to the demand scale,for dealing with users’ strategic bidding.The incentive-compatible Vickrey-Clarke-Groves(VCG)model is deployed to the low-demand trading scenario,while the nearly incentive-compatible monopolistic price(MP) model is utilized for the high-demand trading scenario.With temporary data trading on VChain-D2S,a reverse auction mechanism namely two-stage obscure selection(TSOS) is designed to regulate both suppliers’ quoting and users’ valuation strategies.Furthermore,experiments are carried out to demonstrate the strength of this research in enhancing data security and trading efficiency.