My two penneth is that if China join CPTPP then digital provisions in trade deals becomes even more superflous than they were before.
https://twitter.com/DavidHenigUK/status/1438513887532380160
THE reason that CPTPP has digital provisions is because Japan wanted to ensure that other countries in its region didn't adopt the digital protectionism of China.
Cue a lot of people getting excited about digital provisions and how new trade deals are better with them, despite the fact they largely involve promising to not do something that nobody was going to do.
Cue Liz Truss going on about how we have modern trade deals because they have digital provisions.
Cue literally nobody explaining what the provisions actually do or how they help business, because would involve a very large magnifying glass.
If China signs up to CPTPP they sign away the very protectionism that the digital provisions were designed to prevent happening.
And it's major.
When Microsoft first launched its cloud service it ran sites all over the world except in China where they had to get a private company to run it because that was the law.
When Microsoft first launched its cloud service it ran sites all over the world except in China where they had to get a private company to run it because that was the law.
For digital, it's going to be huge if China drop its digital protections.
The only country where digital provisions really mattered and they look like they want to sign up to them.
The only country where digital provisions really mattered and they look like they want to sign up to them.
If that's done we'll be talking about digital protectionism in the context of countries like North Korea.
Unless I've very much mistaken, this would free up the possibility of getting all these provisions done at the WTO.
I'm not sure they will actually join, but if they do, the biggest thing to come out of it will almost certainly be the death of digital protectionsim.
/End
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