| The digital revolution driven by the internet is changing the way of international economics and trade.Digital trade,an emerging trade model,has been recognized as a booster for the economic grwoth and also has become a hot topic in international economic and trade negotiation.Digital trade relies on the cross-border free movement of personal data,which may genenrate great values.However,opportunities always coexists with the challenges.Digital trade involves in a large amount of personal data being collected and processed,which may pose great chalenges to the personal data protection.Under the circumstance,the countries adopt and formulate diverse crossborder personal data flow rules according to their own development needs and traditions.Some of them turn to the rules restricing the cross-border personal data flow.Of course,the rules restricting personal data flow can protect the persoal data privacy to some extent and thus have its own legitimacy and rationality.However,it also been regarded as new barriers to the digital trade,causing international disputes.Chapter 1 is the overview of the personal data flow rules.The first section talks about the concept of personal data,personal information and corss-boder personal data flow,as well as the different rules on trans-border personal data flow across the world.The conflicting values presented in the corss-border data flow rules are also analyzed in the section.The cross-border personal data flow brings convenience to people and promotes the global trade while threatens the personal data privacy.In this sense,how to balance the relationship between personal data flow and protection is a difficult problem facing many countries.It is the different inclination that cause the international disputes.The section 2 is about the relationship between digital trade and trans-border persoanl data flow.First of all,the part 1 distinguish digital trade from e-commerce and identify the scope and definition of trade barrier.The next part talks about the trade barrier disputes caused by the rules restricting the cross-border personal data flow.It is argued by some countries that the rules restricting personal data flow amounts to the non-tariff barriers,thus these rules may be regarded the diguised protectionism.Therefore,it is essential to clarify the legal limits of a country 's measures restricting the cross-border flow of personal data.In that way,the country can achieve its legal policy objectives without constituting trade barriers.The second chapter explores the cross-border perosnal data flow under the multilateral trade system.Currently,there is no uniform International rules for the cross-border personal data flow.In spite of the unilateralism and anti-globalization,WTO is still the most universally applicable trade rules in the world.Therefore,it is of great importance to analyze the limits of the measures taken by the members to restrict the cross-border personal data flow under the WTO rules.Considering the movement of data has nothing to do with the goods trade,the first section focuses on the compliance of rules restricting the data flow with the GATS rules.Although e-commerce was still in its infancy when the GATS agreement was signed,the panel report and appellate body report can provide further explanations to the measures involiving in personal data flow.Based on the GATS relevant rules,panel and appellate body report,the section 1 analyzes the applicability of GATS to the measures involving in personal data flow,whether the measures restricting persoanl data flow violate the market access and national treatment under the GATS,whether the measures restrciting data flow meet the requirement of GATS XIV respectively.Additionally,e-commerce is not a new topic under the WTO.As early as 1998,the WTO General Council started the e-commerce work plan,but it was brought to suspension for other reasons.In 2016,71 members restarted e-commerce negotiations and 30 proposals was submitted in January 2019,including the cross-border data flow.Section II talks about the proposals of major members on data flow,further clarifying the latest updates of major member states position and attitude.In that way,what could be predicted is the further development of e-commerce negotiations.The third chapter discusses the rules of cross-border personal data flow under regional trade agreements and regional economic organizations.Due to the stranding of doha round and stalling of WTO reform,an increasing number of countries turn to the regional trade agreement for new rules.Therefore,regional trade agreements represents the future of international rules on cross-border data flow.The dissertation selects three large corss-regional trade agreements,CPTPP,TTIP and TISA.Firstly,CPTPP fully inherited TPP's provisions on e-commerce(including crossborder flow of data),which was once considered to be the highest standard trade agreement in the world.Due to the strong battle between EU and US,TTIP and TISA have not yet reached any agreements.However,they still have great research values.The negotiating parties of the two agreements are the most important trade country in the world.EU and US account for half of the global economy and one third of the global trade.Once the TTIP is reached,there will be the world's greatest free trade zone.Additionally,8 of 24 negotiating parties of the TISA are ranked in the top ten of the world's total service trade values.TISA is a very important regional trade agreement considering whether from the number of the countries participating in the negotiations or the proportion of the global service trade values.Apart from the regional trade agreement,the international organizations are also exploring the rules on cross-border data flow.Most notably,the CBPR is established by the APEC,which is the largest and the most important economic organization in Asia-Pacific region.CBPR is not only an important platform for US to implement its cross-border data flow rules,but is very important for China.As an important country in the Asia-Pacific region,China shall give full attention to CBPR.So,the last section talks about the cross—border data flow rules under CBPR.Chapter 4 is about the cross-border personal data flow rules in China.The section I first overview the current domestic legislation in China and international agreement signed by China.In this way,it could be easier to point out the deficiencies of our current cross-border personal data flow rules.Then,suggestions was made from the perspective of improving domestic legislation,enhancing the compliance of crossborder personal data flow rules in China with the international rules as well as actively participating in making international rules. |
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