On The Legal Regulation Dilemma Of The New Form Of Trade Barriers Under The Influence Of Digital Economy

The emergence and development of international trade barriers are usually influenced by the factors of purpose,ideology,environment or media.With the role of traditional trade barriers,such as tariffs and quotas,is weakening,new trade barriers with environmental,labor and technological problems dominate,which represent the system of international trade barriers has completed the first stage of development.In the era of rapid development of the digital economy,the new format of trade-digital trade has become the mainstream,and the barriers affecting digital trade reflect that international trade barriers have entered a second stage of development,including the internal changes and the emergence of new forms on the existing basis.The new form of trade barriers refers to measures that impede trade are not directed at trade activities,but are imposed on important media of digital trade,including information,data,networks and so on.In addition,the reasons for the implementation of measures are often linked to the issue of "security",which involves not only the personal information security of citizens,but also national security,which is highly politically sensitiveThe new form of trade barriers brings about new legal problems.On the one hand,the value orientation behind national regulations or policy choices implies a conflict between the interests protected by different laws.From the perspective of the emerging Cyberspace Law,the measures taken to restrict data or information services based on data sovereignty theory are reasonable.However,if these measures constitute trade barriers,in order to achieve the sustainable development of global digital trade,International Trade Law is needed for necessary regulation.As the development of International Cyberspace Law still in the initial stage,the best choice is to return to International Trade Law,which development is relatively mature,to find solutions to make a balance between trade freedom and security risks.This is one of the types of conflict.Meanwhile,the negative impact of the Internet on the development of human rights may also lead to another conflict between international economic law and human rights law due to different values On the other hand,the new form also has an impact on WTO law,manifested in the following aspects:First,it is difficult to define the attributes of the applicable trade rales,in particular,it is still controversial whether the rules of trade in goods or services should be applied to the barriers to digital content trade.Secondly,Even if the rules of service trade was chosen for the consistency,in order to identify the obligations of Member States under specific commitments,It is also necessary to solve the difficult problem of identifying and interpreting the specific commitments arising from the obsolescence of the classification basis referred to by the service departments that involves data storage and movement in GATS,and the emerging technical services may cover two or more service sectors,such as cloud computing services,which is hard to categorize.Finally,once entering the specific dispute settlement process,if the respondent member states invoke the general exceptions and security exceptions clause of GATS Article 14 to defend,the WTO Dispute Settlement Body should conduct a rigorous review to determine whether the conditions for invocation are met.However,the concealment and precedent limitations of the purpose of taking measures in the new form may lead to disputes in the dispute resolution body when reviewing or exercising the right to interpretFrom the characteristics of the new form of trade barriers and the legal issues reflected,it is a cooperative action that affects all countries and international organizations worldwide to regulate it.First of all,as the most authoritative international organization in the international economic field,the WTO should take this opportunity to put the negotiation of digital trade rules on its agenda,call on more member states to actively participate in the discussion of issues related to digital trade,complete the preparatory work before the negotiation as soon as possible and enter the formal negotiation stage,to avoid the proposal submitted by member states can't be implement and become empty talk;Secondly,when the new rules are not formed and the existing rules are vague,legal interpretation should become an important method for the WTO to achieve good governance.When dealing with disputes arising from measures taken by member states in the new form of trade barriers,The principles of interpretation of international law should be carefully considered to compensate for loopholes in existing rules and to strictly limit the invocation of exception clauses by Member States;Finally,countries that are members of the international community should not only focus on domestic interests or immediate interests,Trade barriers should be minimized to jointly promote the development of the global digital economy.For our country,there are some problems,such as the emphasis of domestic legislation on cross-border e-commerce,the failure to form rules or standards that conform to the characteristics of China's digital economic development in terms of trade in digital services,and the lack of participation in cross-border data transmission cooperation among countries.Therefore,it is necessary to face up to the gaps and shortcomings of domestic laws and regulations,combine the needs of China's digital trade development with the experience of other countries to form rules that are in line with international standards and meet China's security requirements,and actively participate in the negotiation and formulation of WTO digital trade rules,and grasp the initiative and voice.