On The CPTPP Digital Trade Rules And Its Influence On China

Digital trade,as the most innovative economic form of the 21st century,is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy.It has been a popular emerging trade pattern.However,in contract to the prosperous development of digital trade,there is not a complete set of globally recognized digital trade rules in the world.Because WTO rules are made at a relatively slow speed,different member countries have different attitudes,so they cannot reach consensus views.Therefore,when all countries seize the opportunity to develop digital economy,they all turn to the formulation of multilateral or bilateral regional trade agreements and try their best to formulate digital trade rules so that they can own the dominant right.After America exited Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement(hereinafter referred to as TPP),Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(hereinafter referred to as CPTPP)renegotiated came into force formally in 2018.Although the overall economic volume of the world was greatly reduced after America exited,it is still a standard trade agreement of the 21st century with the highest standards in the Asia-Pacific region,the most extensive parties and the highest degree of freedom.The digital trade rules formulated represent the highest level of the current international digital trade rules.Its comprehensive and detailed contents and regulations,such as cross-border data flow,digital localization,digital intellectual property and other key elements,all provide reference for the negotiation and formulation of international rules.It is important for China,with its dual identity of a developing country and a great power of digital trade,to seize the opportunity for the reform of global rules.At present,when all countries seek for ways to formulate digital trade rules,China actively create digital trade rules of "Chinese style template" and take the preemption to occupy the highland to formulate digital trade rules.Besides,most contracting parties in CPTPP agreement have geopolitical and trade ties with China,so its rules will affect China's future rule-making trend no matter China becomes its member or not in the future.This paper aims to carry out a deep research on digital trade rules of CPTPP and master its digital trade rules and measures so as to seize the latest direction to regulate digital trade and to supervise and urge China to speed up its relevant legislation on digital trade and its participation in the negotiation of intermational digital trade rules.Main contents of this paper are as follows:Part 1 clarifies the relationship among digital trade,digital products,e-commerce and other similar concepts,makes clear the concept of digital trade,analyzes new impacts brought by digital trade and gives a brief description of the development of the current digital trade rules.Part 2 introduces the development history of CPTPP and explains digital trade rules and terms of CPTPP agreement,which mainly include measures to reduce digital trade barrier,measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers,measures to promote digital trade convenience and measures to make cross-border service terms and telecommunications terms.Finally,this part elaborates advantages of digital trade rules.Part 3 discusses the big difference between digital trade rules of China and CPTPP from the three main aspects of cross-border data flows,intellectual property rights and protection of personal information.Part 4 emphasizes ways to design digital trade terms in China.First of all,China should focus on developing digital economy,accelerate its legislation process of domestic digital rules and seize the opportunity of "Belt and Road,policy,strengthen the opening degree of China and grasp the opportunity to reform domestic digital trade rules.Besides,it is also important for China to popularize domestic digital trade rules and master the international speech right to formulate the rules.