외교안보연구소 발간자료

Digital Trade Rules in the Asia-Pacific Region:Fragmentation of Rules and the Way Forward

Digital Trade Rules in the Asia-Pacific Region:Fragmentation of Rules and the Way Forward

Digital Trade Rules in the Asia-Pacific Region:Fragmentation of Rules and the Way Forward

대한민국

미국

I.  Introduction
Ⅱ. Current Landscape of Digital Trade Rules in the Asia-Pacific Region
Ⅲ. Problem of Fragmented Rules and Way Forward for Digital Trade Rules in the Asia-Pacific Region  


 I.  Introduction

The rapid advancement of information and communications technology (ICT) over the past 30 years has brought about the digital transformation of traditional trade\ while innovations in digital technology have created new types of goods for trade as well as new means of transactions\ thereby ushering in the ‘era of digital trade’. Various factors\ including the recent COVID-19 pandemic\ have accelerated the pace of digitization in economies around the globe and have further precipitated the growth of digital trade. In 2020\ the share of e-commerce in global consumer goods trade continued its increasing trend\ from 14% in 2019 to 17%\ while global growth in traditional goods trade and services trade declined by 9% and 15%\ respectively. The volume of digital trade has been on a consistent rise since the 2000s\ accounting for 6% (approximately $1.5 trillion) of global trade in 2019. In the services sector\ trade in digital services grew at an annual average rate of 7% during the period from 2005 to 2018\ which is higher than the 6% average annual growth rate in services trade as a whole. 

Korea is one of the countries at the forefront of this digital trade growth. Korea's digital services trade grew at an average annual rate of 8.8% between 2005 and 2018\ and the share of digital services in total services exports increased significantly from 22% in 2005 to 40% in 2019. In addition\ the volume of e-commerce imports and exports has been increasing at an average annual rate of 31.8% since 2016\ indicating that digital trade has been a great driver of economic growth year after year. 

However\ despite the rapid growth and significance of digital trade\ there are currently no multilateral rules to govern digital trade. Consequently\ new and unprecedented trade issues are emerging and serving as potential barriers to growth of the digital economy. The reason behind this situation is the absence of a multilateral agreement on the rules and principles for digital trade\ mainly due to the divergent positions and policies among major economies such as the US\ EU\ and China. The most prominent point of contention is between the US\ which has been actively pursuing for elimination of barriers to digital trade\ and the EU\ which has maintained a more cautious stance on allowing the transfer of personal data over its regional borders. Another area of disagreement lies in China’s emphasis on ‘Internet sovereignty’\ based on which cross-border transfer of personal data is directly related to issues of national security. All of these factors combined make it difficult for countries to reach agreement on an integrated set of rules to provide governance on digital trade. 

Against this backdrop\ many countries have incorporated digital trade rules in free trade agreements (FTAs) as part of their efforts to promote digital trade\ ​​or more recently\ have been concluding separate ‘stand-alone’ digital trade agreements (DTAs) mostly in the Asia-Pacific region. Earnest efforts to set meaningful rules for digital trade were initially led by the US through the chapters on electronic commerce or digital trade in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). More recently\ countries in the Asia-Pacific region are taking the initiative to establish rules on digital trade\ as seen in the various digital trade agreements concluded by Japan\ Singapore and Australia. 

This paper takes an overall review and compares the main contents and level of commitments in DTAs that are concluded among the Asia-Pacific countries\ which will help to understand the trends of development in digital trade rules and identify the issues concerned. The underlying concern in the analysis is the ‘fragmentation of rules’ for digital trade\ as different levels of commitment in diverse DTAs may serve as potential barriers to digital trade. More importantly\ the various forms of exceptions clauses adopted in DTAs may lead to different levels of commitment\ as the scope of liberalization can be reduced significantly based on sovereign decisions regardless of the ‘liberalizing’ language in the main text. Based on this analysis\ this report focuses on the problem of ‘fragmentation of rules’ in digital trade\ and suggests a way forward for integrating rules considering the different levels of development among countries in the region.  


* Attached the File

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