Help: The Impact of International Trade on China

Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, with the rapid development of the computer industry, the world economy has gradually changed from an industrial economy to an information economy, and international trade in information products has begun to appear. Since 1990s, modern information network technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, bringing international trade into an information age. The information factor has become one of the most important factors affecting the trend and development of international trade in the 20th century. In particular, the rise of e-commerce and the birth of Internet trade have led to great changes in the operation mode of international trade. Information flows among countries and regions in the world through the global network, which promotes the development of international trade in the direction of informationization and opens up a new way for the sustainable development of international trade.

First, the significance of the rise of e-commerce

E-commerce is a new business model in the world in recent years. At present, e-commerce has two meanings: in a narrow sense, e-commerce generally refers to commercial transactions conducted through open networks based on data processing and transmission, including business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions. E-commerce in a broad sense refers to all business activities of Internet, Intranet and Extranet, and the integrated electronic operation mode in related fields.

In recent years, the rapid development of e-commerce is the inevitable product of the trend of global market, finance and economy integration. This working mode relies on the Internet, Intranet and Extranet, and uses Internet technology to connect enterprises, users, suppliers and links needed for business and trade to the existing information technology system, which completely changes the traditional business operation mode and means, and is a form that can realize global information flow in the field of international trade. E-commerce expands the space and place of international trade, shortens the distance and time of international trade, simplifies the procedures and processes of international trade, makes international trade activities global, intelligent, paperless and simplified, and realizes epoch-making profound changes. According to UNCTAD's estimation, if e-commerce is used in global international trade, it will bring about 654.38+000 billion US dollars in income every year, so UNCTAD calls it "an innovative method to improve the efficiency of world trade". Some experts believe that according to the current development momentum, in the next 10 year, 1/3 of world international trade will be completed in the form of internet trade. With the acceleration of the globalization of the world economy, the proportion of world import and export trade through e-commerce will gradually increase.

E-commerce is starting a new revolution in the field of international trade. E-commerce is the technical basis of economic globalization, which breaks through various obstacles set by countries and regions, makes international trade move towards borderless trade and causes great changes in the world economy and trade.

First of all, the trading mode in the international trade market has undergone major changes, and a "virtual market" has emerged. E-commerce has opened up a brand-new open, multi-dimensional and three-dimensional market space through online "virtual" information exchange, broken through the condition that the traditional market must be based on a certain geographical existence, and connected the world into a unified "big market" with the information network as the link, which has promoted the formation of world economic globalization and marketization. The global accelerated flow of production factors such as capital, commodities and technology brought by information flow has promoted the rapid development of the global "network economy". In this internet trading environment, the economic and trade ties and cooperation between countries have been greatly strengthened.

Secondly, the main body of international trade has undergone major changes, and "virtual companies" have emerged. Modern information and communication technology connects many companies into a company group network through the core technology owned by a single company in their respective professional fields, and completes the market function that a company cannot undertake, thus providing goods and services to the market more effectively. This new form of enterprise organization does not have the power to force companies to connect with each other in capital relations, but it seems to have some substantive functions because it undertakes certain functions of information collection, processing and transmission. The strategic alliance of multinational corporations is the main manifestation of this "virtual company". Through a dynamic network combination of an open system, we can find resources and alliances, realize "virtual operation" to adapt to the changing economic competition environment and personalized and diversified consumer demand trends, and bring the benefits of division of labor and cooperation, complementary advantages, mutual use of resources and benefit sharing to multinational companies.

Third, great changes have taken place in the way of international trade management. The interactive network operation mechanism provided by e-commerce provides a relatively complete market environment for international barter, and the optimal allocation of cross-border resources and production factors through international trade is the link of world economic operation, which makes the market mechanism fully and effectively play its role in the global scope. This trade mode breaks through the traditional one-way logistics operation mode and realizes the "four-stream integration", that is, a brand-new management mode with logistics as the support, capital flow as the form, information flow as the core and business flow as the main body, and provides all-round, multi-level and multi-angle interactive business services through information networks. Through the network, producers, users and consumers can realize just-in-time supply system and "zero-inventory" production, the flow of goods is smoother, and the information network becomes the biggest middleman. In international trade, the traditional way of using importers and exporters as the media for buying and selling goods between countries is challenged, the principal-agent relationship and model formed by information asymmetry are shaken, and the status of trade intermediaries, agents and professional import and export companies is relatively weakened, which has triggered a revolution in the intermediate organizational structure of international trade.

Second, the rapid development of internet trade and the problems and challenges it faces.

Online trade is one of the important components of e-commerce. It refers to the direct online trade based on the network platform, and the organic connection of enterprises, customs, transportation, finance, commodity inspection, taxation and other related departments with digital technology to realize the automatic processing of all or part of the business such as browsing, negotiation, signing and cash on delivery. Internet trade in a broad sense mainly includes two types: Internet trade and EDI paperless trade. Internet trade in a narrow sense only refers to Internet trade. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology was developed and applied earlier, but it is a closed system with high cost, complex technical standards and lack of universality. Up to now, the development of EDI paperless trade is still slow. Internet is an open network system with unified protocol standards and low communication cost, which can better meet the expanding market demand. Comparatively speaking, online trading will be the mainstream direction of online trading development in the future.

At present, the development speed of Internet trade is accelerating, and an emerging market with great potential has begun to take shape. It can be predicted that Internet trade will become the dominant trade mode in the next 2 1 century. The objective basis for the emergence of internet trade is fundamentally the great development of scientific and technological revolution, which requires the globalization and integration of economic relations. As we all know, scientific and technological progress has brought profound changes to the world economy. The information technology revolution based on microelectronics technology and the formation of the Internet are merging the world economy into a global "network economy". The domestic and international boundaries of economic activities are gradually blurred, and the global allocation of resources has begun to break through the boundaries of time and space. Computer network coverage has become the main obstacle to the development of economic globalization in the information society. The trend of global economic network integration provides impetus and opportunities for the reform and innovation of traditional trade. Internet trade has broken through the material, time and space constraints of both parties in traditional trade activities, and its emergence and development will certainly promote the growth of world economy and trade.

Compared with traditional trade methods, Internet trade has the following advantages: (1) Internet trade will greatly reduce the transaction costs of buyers and sellers. Buyers and sellers contact directly through the network, without the participation of trade intermediaries, reducing the intermediate links of transactions; All parties involved in the transaction can store, exchange and process information only by paying low network communication and management fees, saving money and reducing costs; Because the Internet is a global open network, it is beneficial for both parties to obtain "complete information", reduce the search cost in the market and reduce the uncertainty of transactions; Direct transmission of electronic documents on the Internet can not only save the production cost of paper documents, but also shorten the time for settlement of foreign exchange by presenting documents, speed up capital turnover and save interest expenses. (2) Internet trade has improved work efficiency. The existing network technology realizes the instant transmission and exchange of standard format documents (such as contracts, bills of lading, invoices, etc.). Among commercial users, buyers and sellers can directly handle various foreign trade business procedures such as ordering, negotiation, signing, customs declaration, inspection, chartering, booking space, paying taxes, payment and settlement. Being indoors greatly shortens the transaction time, making the whole transaction very fast and convenient, thus promoting the work efficiency of finance, customs, transportation, insurance and other related departments. (3) Online trade is beneficial for enterprises to enhance their competitive position. Companies and manufacturers can apply for domain name registration, set up their own websites on the Internet, introduce products and services through webpages, and publicize corporate image, which is conducive to expanding corporate visibility, exploring overseas markets and improving international competitiveness. In addition, Internet trade has no time and geographical restrictions and is less affected by natural conditions. Yue? Little beep? Do you want to live in ashes? Patrol? Barking Portuguese? Hey? What's the use? Curtains? Brother Bei Chong? ⒆ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃ ⒃? What happened? Bear? What happened? Huh? /P & gt；

Online trade is a new field full of opportunities and challenges. After just a few years of development, Internet trade has reached a considerable scale. According to the data of International Data Corporation, the global electronic trade turnover in196 was $2-3 billion, and it increased to1500 million in/97. In the report entitled "Rising Digital Economy" published in April 1998, the US Department of Commerce said that the trade volume on the Internet is increasing at a rate of 1 times every three months, and it is expected to reach 300 billion US dollars by 2002. According to the estimation of the World Trade Organization, by 2002, international trade through the Internet may account for 10%- 15% of the total world trade. In order to promote the development of internet trade, many developed countries advocate the full liberalization of internet trade. Some international economic organizations, such as the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, have also started policy dialogue and information exchange on Internet trade. Therefore, Internet trade is expected to become the largest "free trade zone" in the world, which will greatly promote the development of Internet trade.

However, while changing the way and content of international trade, internet trade has also put forward new thinking and challenges to the traditional international trade theory, multinational company theory and international trade laws and regulations. According to the traditional comparative advantage theory, the comparative advantage of different countries is based on the differences in natural resources, capital, labor and human resources. Under the condition of Internet trade, information has become the most important factor of production and resource, which has changed the basis of the traditional theory of international division of labor, that is, the difference in the ability of producing, disseminating, feeding back and using information between countries-the comparative advantage of information has become more and more important in international trade. In international trade, information technology has become an integral part of the international competitiveness of trading countries or enterprises, and the information processing efficiency of a country or enterprise has become the basis and condition for its participation in international competition. The developed degree of information infrastructure and the scale proportion of information industry greatly affect a country's competitive strength and position in international trade and even the world economy. The development degree of information infrastructure and information technology in different countries and regions in the world is different, which leads to the unbalanced development of global networking. According to the report of the International Telecommunication Union in September, 1997, by the end of 1996, two-thirds of the world's Internet users were distributed in the United States and Canada, 2 1.9% in continental Europe, 6.3% in Asia, 3.7% in Oceania and only 1% and 0.6% in Latin America and Africa. This puts developing countries in a passive position in the development of Internet trade, which aggravates the imbalance of economic development and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Developed countries also try to control and monopolize the world information resources in order to continue to dominate? Ridge? Wipe the condyle, which is Kangmo C Gallery? How about international wine? Go back somewhere and write it on your cheek? /3, the information trade between western industrialized countries represented by them accounts for 90% of international information trade, while other newly industrialized countries and regions and developing countries only account for about 10%. This new mode of international trade division excludes underdeveloped countries from the mainstream of international trade, which leads to a new trend of "marginalization" in international trade. This situation also reduces the importance of the comparative advantages of natural resources and cheap labor in developing countries. The global information network turns trillions of dollars of trade, investment and international financial business into the flow between credit information symbols, which can be completed in an instant. It also provides opportunities for international investors to make waves in international economic and trade activities, especially in the international financial market, which greatly increases the difficulty for governments of developing countries to implement protective macro-control policies.

The above-mentioned strategic alliance and virtual operation, the innovative cooperative and competitive operation mode of multinational companies, have opened the prelude to the reform of the organization and operation mode of companies in the information society. At the same time, the information network connected by non-capital participation in spontaneous agreements breaks the hierarchy and boundaries of traditional enterprise organizations, making multinational companies an open system. This form of "virtual" internalization of external resources makes the company's operation develop in a flexible and elastic direction. Incorporate all the production links of multinational companies into the modern information network, and use online "virtual reality" technology to carry out intuitive production coordination on a global scale. This not only dilutes the geographical boundaries of the company's activities, but also effectively utilizes the company's operating resources and capabilities, promotes the growth of internal trade of multinational companies, and also brings about the expansion of the overall scale of international trade. The original two-dimensional and parallel material flow of multinational corporations has been transformed into an open, three-dimensional, multi-dimensional and networked flow composed of material and non-material, which has led to deeper thinking on the internalization theory, scale economy theory and manufacturer theory of multinational corporations, and also made the international trade competition pattern evolve from the traditional "single-handedness" to a "win-win" cooperative competition model.

The development of e-commerce and internet trade challenges the traditional international trade laws and regulations. Traditionally, trade contracts must be concluded in written form, and identities can be identified by handwritten signatures or seals. However, in online transactions, due to the widespread use of electronic money and electronic signatures, the legal provisions of tangible contracts are difficult to apply to intangible online contracts, and how to determine the rights and obligations of intangible online contracts needs to be further clarified. In addition, the privacy of network information and the protection of intellectual property rights; The evidential effect of electronic data and online information; Electronic signature and authentication; The online transaction of intangible products needs to be adjusted and changed in terms of trade legislation, so as to collect domestic financial and trade policies such as customs import and export tariffs and market access, thus protecting the legitimate rights and interests of traders and promoting the operation of international trade in accordance with unified international treaties and practices. Therefore, it is necessary to establish basic rules of the game for the "digital market". 1996 The Model Law on Electronic Commerce adopted at the 29th annual meeting of the United Nations Trade and Development Commission is the first law on electronic commerce in the world so far. At present, it only plays a "demonstration" role and is not mandatory, but it provides a set of internationally recognized rules for legislators in various countries and creates a relatively reliable legal environment. The formulation of laws and regulations in internet trade is a complicated social project. In order to promote its emergence and development, it needs extensive global cooperation from the international community.

Third, the development of internet trade in China and its countermeasures

The development of Internet trade in China is still in its infancy. So far, there is no real online banking in China, and it will take time for customs, commodity inspection, insurance, taxation, transportation and other departments to achieve the goal of networking. At present, there is no real Internet trade in China, so we can only do "online browsing and offline trading". On the other hand, the development of Internet trade in China has made a good start. Since the early 1990s, our government has successively implemented a series of gold-lettered signboard projects such as "Golden Bridge", "Golden Card" and "Golden Gate", and these projects have achieved initial results. 1March, 998, China Bank and Century Internet * * * completed the first electronic transaction in China, which means that the construction of electronic banking in China started. On July 8th, 1998, the "Online China Commodity Exchange Market" established in official website of MOFTEC was officially put into operation, which was the first online trading market established by the government in China. This marks an important step in China's Internet trade.

Judging from China's current level of economic development and business operation, Internet trade opportunities and challenges coexist, and challenges outweigh opportunities. In order to promote the healthy development of internet trade, we should take the following positive measures:

1. Change ideas to meet the challenges of the Internet age. With the rapid development of science and technology, especially the rapid development of information technology, the network era has come to us rapidly. Network will have a great influence on politics, culture, economy and other aspects of human society. Only by integrating into the global digital competition as soon as possible can we better participate in the operation of the global economy and share the benefits of international division of labor. At present, China residents and enterprises have a weak concept of Internet trade, and traditional shopping habits and sales methods are still deeply rooted. The lag of understanding will hinder the development of Internet trade in China. Therefore, we should make full use of various means to publicize the important role of network and information in future competition, promote residents and enterprises to change their concepts, attach importance to the development of Internet trade, and create a public opinion environment to promote the development of Internet trade.

2. Accelerate the investment and construction of information infrastructure. Information infrastructure is a "bottleneck" that restricts the development of Internet trade. China has made some achievements in the investment and construction of information infrastructure. For example, since 1994, China officially connected to the Internet, the number of domestic users has exceeded 800,000, the number of WWW websites has exceeded 1500, and the number of domain names registered under CN has exceeded 5 100. ChinaNTE has covered 3 1 province and city, and CERNET has connected 260 universities. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the computer network invested and built developed rapidly, realizing interconnection. Although China's network architecture has basically taken shape, compared with foreign countries, the investment in domestic information infrastructure is still seriously insufficient, the construction is still preliminary, and the goals of electronic finance and electronic commerce are still far away. Take the Internet penetration rate as an example. At present, the number of netizens in China only accounts for 0.07% of the total population, while that in the United States is more than 30%, a difference of more than 400 times. Therefore, China must increase the investment and construction of information infrastructure to lay a solid foundation for the development of Internet trade.

3. Accelerate the informatization construction of enterprise management network and improve the international competitiveness of enterprises. In the era of knowledge economy, it is far from meeting the needs of market competition for enterprises to engage in business activities only by traditional management methods. Internet access to open up the market has always been considered by large global companies as the lowest cost and the most efficient means of operation. At present, the wave of enterprise merger in the world is developing rapidly, the trend of global integration is further strengthened, and the competition among enterprises is becoming more and more fierce. However, the development of network and information technology also provides a favorable weapon for small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the competition, so that they are at the same starting line with large enterprises in the use of information resources and can realize transnational operation on the Internet at a very low cost. Therefore, in the information age with the rapid development of computer network, the biggest challenge faced by China enterprises is how to fundamentally change their management and operation methods by using computer and Internet technology, make full use of the business opportunities brought by Internet trade, improve international competitiveness and achieve rapid development. In order to achieve this goal, for many domestic enterprises, especially nearly 500 thousand small and medium-sized enterprises, e-commerce and internet trade are the only way for enterprises to improve their competitiveness.

4. Strengthen the study of internet trade and standardize the development of internet trade. Internet trade is a brand-new commercial field with broad development prospects, but it also brings many new problems, such as the security of transactions, tax exemption in internet trade, the protection of intellectual property rights, the validity of electronic contracts and the handling of disputes. The solution of these problems directly affects the development of Internet trade, but the business model has not been finalized due to the rapid development of Internet trade. In the process of its development, there are both its own new progress and conflicts with the existing system, which brings certain difficulties to regulate the development of internet trade. Therefore, we must be highly sensitive to the development of the market, strengthen the research on Internet trade, formulate and improve corresponding policies, standards, laws and regulations, and ensure and standardize the healthy development of China's Internet trade.

In a word, the rise of e-commerce and Internet trade is a profound business revolution in the field of international trade. With the arrival of the new century, human society is about to enter the era of knowledge economy. In this transformation, the great adjustment of the world economic structure, the reconstruction of the world market and the deepening of the innovation of international trade methods will have a far-reaching impact on every country. As the largest developing country, China faces the same opportunities and challenges as other developing countries. In order to participate in the international market competition more effectively and gain more benefits in the process of economic globalization, we should attach great importance to the development trend of internet trade, seriously study and explore the development law of internet trade and its influence on international trade, so as to take positive countermeasures, cultivate the innovation mechanism and international competitiveness of enterprises, and make China's foreign trade win advantages and initiative in the international competition in the new century and maintain rapid and healthy development.