Yihan Dai - Cross-Border Data Transfers Regulations in the Context of International Trade Law: A PRC Perspective: A PRC Perspective

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Currently, international trade cannot survive without cross-border data flows. The ongoing convergence of different industries and technologies, teeming with the emergence of new products and services, defies accurate classification between goods and services. Cross-border data transfers often encompass cross-sectional issues of privacy law, personal data protection law, trade law, to mention but a few. Therefore, these laws of several nations and regions must be considered together. In recent years, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has made good progress in enhancing its personal data protection through adopting related laws, regulations and guidelines, especially in the digital field. Like numerous other governments, such as those of Russia, Australia, South Korea, India, Brazil, Canada, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei or Iran, one of the PRCs endeavours is to regulate cross-border data transfers through direct and indirect data localization requirements. It is these restrictions on cross-border data transfers imposed domestically that have aroused great controversy because such restrictions might violate countries treaty obligations and eventually impede international trade. Moreover, international trade may be further impeded by the fact that the existing worlds international legal system is highly fragmented in nearly all areas, including data protection and cross-border data transfers. This fragmentation makes it very hard to harmonize the objectives of data protection laws with those of international trade liberalization in the near future.

As the most important laws governing these issues are usually adopted at the domestic level, it is important to prudently draft such data protection laws and regulations and to intelligently apply them so that countries can unlock the benefits of both technological innovation and global digital trade. For example, Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data and other new data-fuelled technologies benefit a lot from PRCs relaxed data privacy legislation and its system of Internet censorship. As dataparticularly personal dataare now the most valuable assets of the digital age, data protection legislation is becoming one of the most important sources of competitive advantage of individual nations in the context of international trade and could have far-reaching implications for countrys competitiveness in todays global digital economy. Overly stringent data privacy legislation might seriously weaken the development of digital economy, as well as international trade while too loose rules for the use of personal data might undermine privacy and data security. At the international level, it is necessary to find a common global language that clearly addresses some controversial issues that are closely related to the implementation of cross-border data flows. The conclusion of plurilateral trade agreements is a good starting point to build bridges between different systems of data protection and cross-border data flow regulations.

Keywords: PRCs Legislation on Cross-border Data Transfers, International Trade, Personal Data Protection, Foreign Trade Agreements, World Trade Organization (WTO), Industry Convergence, Technological Innovation, Regulatory Divergence, Competitive Advantage.