Beijing, 9 February 2022 (TDI): China’s State Council has approved setting up more cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in 27 cities and regions to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investments.
According to a statement released by the State Council, the new pilot zones in 27 cities, including those in Erdos in Inner Mongolia and the city of Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province, will duplicate and improve the experience learned from the previous five batches of pilot zones.
The cabinet also stresses efforts to safeguard national security while trying to promote the high-quality development of trade, internet security, data security, and biological security to nurture a harmonious business environment for market entities.
China’s cross-border e-commerce has been expanding much faster than overall international trade, and its share in overall international trade has grown significantly.
So far China’s State Council has established 105 cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in five batches since 2015. The new business model has become an energetic force driving China’s export trade growth.
Official data shows that despite the Covid Pandemic continuing to affect international trade, China’s total trade in goods has increased to another score in 2021, exceeding 6 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time.
According to the latest new official record, China’s regulatory plans for technology companies in 2022 reveal the target antitrust, data and algorithm security, fintech regulation, and gig workers’ rights, among other areas.
Recently, on January 19, 2021, nine Chinese ministries and commissions jointly issued the ‘Opinions on Promoting Standardized, Healthy, and Sustainable Development of Platform Economy‘ (Fa Gai Gao Ji [2021] No.1872) which addresses all local governments and reaffirm Beijing’s commitment to regulate monopolies, unfair competition, user data abuse, and other illegal behaviors of platform companies.
They also promise stronger supervision over advertising, tax reporting, and labor rights protection in the online platform sector. On the other side, the ‘US-China competitiveness bill’ sparks a battle over international e-commerce.
Industry groups and powerful corporations are fighting over a bipartisan bill that targets to clear out the sale of fake products online. Etsy, eBay, and other e-commerce firms are lobbying lawmakers to take the Shop Safe Act out of the bill to bolster U.S. competitiveness with China.
They gave a warning that it would compel most online marketplaces to shut down, leaving online space to be dominated by only a few industry giants like Amazon.
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