A Study on the Facilitation of Digital Trade and Cross-border Data Transfer

Digital trade refers to cross-border transactions based on data flows. These digital trade requires large amounts of data because trade transactions are conducted based on data, and cross-border data transfer plays a very important role in digital trade. Nevertheless, many countries are enforcing restrictions on cross-border data transfers for reasons such as privacy protection, cybersecurity, intellectual property infringement, and national security. These regulations on data transfer act as a significant obstacle to the development of digital trade. At present, not only does there not exist a unified international norm for cross-border data transfer, but even major countries have different regulations on it. Therefore, in order to facilitate digital trade, it is necessary to prepare measures to minimize regulations on cross-border data transfers and secure the interoperability of different data protection frameworks between major countries. Additionally, we will need to establish a global data privacy framework and conclude a global digital free trade agreement in the long term.