Plurilateral Negotiation of WTO e-Commerce in the Context of Digital Economy : Recent Issues and Developments

In January 2019, 76 WTO members representing 90% of world trade economy launched the "ECommerce plurilateral negotiations" aimed at developing international rules in the ECommerce/digital trade field to adapt to the globalization and digital development of the economy. The negotiations covered both trade facilitation issues of necessary consensus among members and new rules on high standards of digital trade. With different levels of digital economic development and different demands for core interests, the coordination of positions among key members such as the United States, China and Europe is a decisive factor in the success of the negotiations. In this regard, it is necessary to focus on the analysis of cross-border data flows and prohibitions in negotiations. The core issues in dispute are localization requirements, source code and algorithm regulation. As the largest country in e-commerce and the second-largest country in the digital economy, China needs to actively participate in the negotiation, at the same time, pay attention to promoting the negotiation in line with the interests of the most substantial majority of members, and enhance China's rule voice in the field of e-commerce