The Benchmarking Strategy for Provincial Free Trade Zones in International High-Standard E-Commerce Rules: A Case Study of China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone

Cross-border e-commerce has become an important part of international trade. Most of the bilateral or multilateral free trade agreements signed in recent years have a special chapter on e-commerce to regulate them. This article summarizes the main contents of international high-standard e-commerce rules and summarizes them into four major aspects: 1) Reduce the access barriers of cross-border e-commerce trade; 2) Promote the facilitation of electronic transactions; 3) Protect intellectual property rights and online consumer rights; 4) Explore the digital trade rules and services tax. Furthermore, based on the analysis of China’s free trade zone and China (Jiangsu) pilot free trade zone, the practical path of provincial-level free trade zones benchmarking international high-standard e-commerce rules is proposed from four aspects. First, technical standards and systems should be aligned with international high standard rules. Second, optimize laws and regulations to improve the business environment. Third, strengthen innovation, infrastructure construction and talent training. Fourth, deepen international and domestic cooperation and exchanges. The research provides a useful reference for how provincial free trade zones can benchmark against international high-standard e-commerce rules.