Apply to join depa for win-win cooperation

Another big move was made to promote a higher level of opening up! Recently, a spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce said that the working group on China's accession to depa has been officially established and will carry out substantive negotiations with the member countries of the digital economy partnership agreement (depa) to continue to promote the accession process.
As the first digital economy regional agreement in the world, depa was initiated by New Zealand, Singapore and Chile in May 2019 and signed into force in June 2020. This new agreement, which has only been in force for more than two years, has been "sought after" by all parties once it is implemented. Not only China and South Korea have started the application procedures for joining depa, but also Canada, the United States and other countries have expressed their willingness to join the agreement.
Why does an agreement that has not been in force for a long time and is still small in size receive so much attention? The main reason is that this agreement represents a new trend in global economic and trade development. Specifically, in addition to the existing series of trade and investment agreements, this is the first important institutional arrangement made by the international community in the field of digital economy.
As we all know, digital technology has developed rapidly in recent years. In the global economic and trade activities, more and more investment and trade activities choose more convenient digital ways to realize. Although the global economic growth is sluggish, the digital economy still shows strong resilience. From the analysis of global economic and trade data, the impetus of data cross-border flow to economic growth has exceeded the traditional investment and trade.
Unfortunately, under the current provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO), there are no special rules for digital trade, and the existing relevant rules are mostly concentrated in the agreement texts and annexes under the WTO framework, which can no longer meet the requirements of rules brought by the development of global digital trade. It is precisely because of the lack of global rules and consistent regulatory schemes that the development of the digital economy has been faced with barriers and challenges such as market access restrictions, localization requirements, intellectual property rights, data privacy, network security, tax and jurisdiction uncertainty.
Some experts analyzed and pointed out that at present, the global digital economic and trade rules are mainly dominated by three forces: one is the model proposed by the United States to advocate supporting the free flow of data and opposing the server and data localization requirements; The second is the model represented by the European Union, which emphasizes privacy, audio-visual product exceptions, intellectual property rights and consumer protection; The third is the governance model that emphasizes digital sovereignty represented by China. Obviously, there are obvious differences in the digital trade propositions of the above three parties. Under this background, depa agreement, as the fourth force to promote the digital economic and trade rules, deserves attention.
At present, China's digital economy is the second largest in the world. In fact, it is also an important source of global digital economy innovation. In 2021, the scale of China's digital economy will reach 45.4 trillion yuan, and the proportion of GDP has increased from 15.2% in 2008 to 39.8% in 2021. At the same time, the "China plan" for international cooperation in the digital economy is absent internationally. The most direct manifestation is that although China's digital economy has been in the forefront of the world, and even has achieved the lead in some tracks, it has to choose passive acceptance in many economic and trade rules due to the lack of matching voice.
China has both the need and the ability to enhance the international voice of the digital economy. As the spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce said, China's application to join depa and its active promotion of the process of joining it fully reflect China's positive willingness to connect with high-standard international digital rules and expand international cooperation in the digital economy. It is an important action for China to continue to promote a higher level of opening up. On the other hand, China's initiative is not only conducive to promoting the wider opening up of the digital trade field and establishing an integrated digital trade market with the member countries with the same rules and compatible standards, but also conducive to expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries in the emerging digital field, bringing business opportunities for digital industry cooperation for enterprises and promoting the development of digital economy of all parties.
A noteworthy technical detail is that the depa agreement is composed of 16 thematic modules, such as commerce and trade facilitation, commerce and consumer trust, digital identity, and small and medium-sized enterprise cooperation. Relevant member states do not need to agree to all the contents of the depa, and may choose to join the depa selectively according to their own interests. In fact, this is completely consistent with China's goal of "jointly creating an open and safe digital economy development environment and sharing the dividends of digital economy development". China's positive attitude and practical actions will further enhance the international influence of the depa agreement.