Research On CPTPP Digital Trade Rule

As a new form of trade,digital trade can easily cross the geographical boundaries between countries,and lead the rapid development of the global economy in the integration and penetration of traditional goods or service trade in all aspects.But at the same time,the liberalization of digital trade is constantly impacting the traditional concept of national sovereignty,making it particularly difficult for all parties to coordinate policies.Compared with the lack of progress at the multilateral level,many countries and regions are gradually turning to digital trade cooperation through regional trade agreements.As one of the core contents of CPTPP,CPTPP digital trade rules have established a series of high-standard rules such as cross-border data flow and source code supervision,so as to fully protect the private interests of citizens and enterprises,and thus realize the protection of national public interests.The trend of digital trade rules will dominate the future development of digital trade,so our country attaches great importance to the construction of the rule of law in digital trade.In September 2021,our country formally applied to join CPTPP.However,due to the large gap between its digital trade rules and our country’s existing rules,it will become a key issue faced by our country when it joins CPTPP negotiations in the future.CPTPP digital trade rules aim to promote the liberalization of digital trade,and are committed to ensuring the healthy and orderly development of digital trade by eliminating digital trade barriers.From the perspective of normative analysis,the CPTPP’s chapter on e-commerce is divided into four aspects: reducing digital trade barriers,promoting digital trade facilitation,protecting online consumer rights and interests,and promoting international coordination and cooperation,providing a standard template for the formulation of global digital trade rules;from the perspective of comparative analysis,compared with other FTAs,CPTPP digital trade rules are embodied in a systematic institutional system,high-standard rule templates,and multi-compatible regional agreements;from the perspective of analysis of applicable issues,CPTPP digital trade rules balance trade liberalization and national security through exception clauses,and implement the protection of the rights and interests of individuals,developing countries and small and medium-sized enterprises in the application of the clauses,but there are still certain limitations.Based on this,cross-border data flow,data localization,and source code supervision constitute the difficulties and challenges faced by our country’s accession to CPTPP digital trade rules.At present,our country should attach importance to the development of the top-level design of digital trade,and scientifically deploy the new pattern of development,as well as pay attention to the benign interaction of domestic and international rules to promote the development of domestic digital trade rules.Under the premise of conforming to the interests of our country,it is necessary for our country to rationally docking with key CPTPP digital trade rules,laying a solid foundation for joining CPTPP.It is hoped that our country will build a framework of digital trade rules in line with its national conditions in the future,and even strive for the initiative to formulate international rules.