Yang Wangjian

Concept and classification of international e-commerce

(1) international trade and foreign trade

International trade: (international trade) refers to the exchange of goods, services and technical goods and services between countries (regions) in the world, which is the manifestation of the division of labor among countries and reflects the economic interdependence and connection between countries or regions in the world.

Foreign trade refers to the exchange of goods, services, technologies and services between a country or region and other countries (regions).

International trade is to study the exchange activities between countries (regions) from the world, while foreign trade is to study from the perspective of a country. There is a general and individual relationship between the two, and the study of foreign trade cannot replace the study of international trade, because international trade as an objective whole has its unique contradictions and laws of motion, and some comprehensive problems in the international scope cannot be studied in depth only from the perspective of individual countries or regions.

(b) Electronic commerce and international trade

The study of international e-commerce depends on the knowledge and understanding of the relationship between e-commerce and international trade.

E-commerce is setting off a new revolution in the field of international trade, breaking through various obstacles set by countries and regions, making international trade move towards borderless trade and causing great changes in the world economy and trade.

First, the trading mode in the international trade market has undergone major changes. E-commerce has opened up a brand-new and open market space through online "virtual" information exchange, broken through the condition that the traditional market must be based on a certain geographical existence, connected the world into a unified "big market" with information network as a link, and promoted the formation of world economic globalization and marketization.

Second, major changes have taken place in the main body of international trade operations. 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.

Third, international trade management has undergone major changes. 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. In international trade, the traditional way of using importers and exporters as the medium 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.

Fourth, the customs business process has undergone major changes. Through the application of e-commerce technology, the internal business management of customs and its interconnection with the outside world have been continuously strengthened, and positive progress has been made in optimizing the port environment and speeding up customs clearance, which greatly facilitates enterprises to handle various import and export procedures online, and also provides data and network support for joint supervision of government departments, which has played a very significant role in promoting customs clearance at ports, improving efficiency, simplifying procedures and strict management.

Fifth, e-commerce has greatly reduced the operating costs of international trade. The application of e-commerce with the Internet as the core has broken the time-space boundary, and the integration effect of e-commerce has also simplified the business process. In addition, with the improvement of third-party services on the Internet, enterprises have realized low-cost business communication and business data exchange to the maximum extent through the network, and their products can be promoted to any corner of the world through network services.

(c) Electronic commerce and globalization of trade

E-commerce plays an increasingly important role in international trade, which promotes the development of trade globalization from three aspects:

1. As a service industry, e-commerce is one of the important contents of international service trade. In other words, e-commerce itself is a part of trade globalization.

2. As a high-tech application, e-commerce is an effective means to reduce the adverse effects caused by some non-tariff barriers between countries or regions and promote trade liberalization. For example, using the characteristics of two-way communication of e-commerce information, flexible trading means and quick conclusion of transactions, we can gain time to apply for global quotas or import license.

As a new trade mode, e-commerce has not only become an inseparable part of international trade practice, but also brought great convenience to international trade practice. First of all, the governments of various countries or regions require the use of e-commerce for customs declaration; Secondly, through the internet or private network, business people can find business opportunities at their desks, which is conducive to establishing more trade partnerships; Finally, it simplifies the international trade procedures and shortens the international trade transaction process, thus saving manpower, material resources and financial resources.

(d) Concept and classification of international electronic commerce

Through the above analysis, we can give the concept of international e-commerce:

International e-commerce refers to all kinds of business activities carried out by the parties or participants in the transaction on a global scale by using modern information technology and computer networks, including trade in goods, services and intellectual property rights; Its main research scope includes the international market in the virtual product (service) market and the international market in the physical product (service) market using e-commerce transaction means.

At present, the application modes of international e-commerce can be divided into the following categories:

1. According to the transaction content, its application mode can be divided into two types: the application mode based on trade in goods and the application mode based on trade in services. The former focuses on the transfer of ownership of goods. The application of paperless trade involves all links in the traditional trade chain, such as goods delivery, payment for goods, administrative examination and approval, goods delivery and so on. The latter focuses on service-oriented applications.

2. From the perspective of technology realization, international e-commerce application modes can be divided into private network application mode, open Internet application mode and mobile commerce mode. From this perspective, it can reflect the technical path and implementation mode of international e-commerce.

3. From the application field, its application mode can be divided into administrative application mode, customs clearance mode and cross-border transaction mode. Paperless trade in some economies is biased towards administrative application mode, such as Singapore and South Korea; The application of paperless trade in some economies is biased towards customs clearance mode, such as China and Hongkong. In addition, many economies, including China, are exploring cross-border trade patterns. Because the development of paperless trade will eventually establish a global cross-border trade system and trading platform, and seamlessly realize the effective transmission of business documents and business information within the cross-border scope.

The Development of International E-commerce in China

(A) the application of international e-commerce in export customs clearance

China Customs began to study and popularize EDI in the early 1990s. After three stages of development: single application, system application and inter-departmental and inter-regional networking application, three systems of e-Customs, e-Port and General Administration of Electronics have been gradually established and improved.

During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, great progress has been made in the construction of "electronic customs", "electronic ports" and "General Administration of Electronics", and considerable progress has been made in networking customs clearance operations, intelligent monitoring means, digital functional management and scientific administrative decision-making. Among them, the construction and upgrading of "e-Customs" completed the switch from H883 to H2000, and developed and applied a large number of customs clearance application projects, which enhanced the unity and standardization of customs law enforcement and improved the overall efficiency of customs supervision; Breakthrough progress has been made in the construction of central and local "electronic ports", which has improved the law enforcement capacity of ports; The construction of "General Administration of Electronics" has achieved remarkable results, and the development and application of risk management, law enforcement evaluation, tax analysis, monitoring and other analysis and decision-making systems have improved the customs risk analysis, scientific decision-making, government affairs office and service level. [ 1]

China Electronic Port, a cross-departmental, cross-regional and cross-industry public data center and data exchange information system based on the national telecom public network, started the construction of local electronic ports in the second half of 2002. By the end of 2005, 27 local governments and the General Administration of Customs had signed a memorandum of cooperation on the construction of local electronic ports, of which 15 local electronic port platforms were put into operation; * * * Run 207 office and inquiry projects; [2] There are more than 200,000 networked enterprises. [3]

Although the electronic customs declaration rate of import and export in China has reached 100%, importers and exporters still need to submit paper customs declaration forms to complete the whole customs clearance process, rather than paperless. Therefore, the development of international e-commerce in China is still at a low level in the development of all countries in the world (see Figure 6.39).

Fig. 6.39 Schematic diagram of electronic customs declaration and paperless customs clearance in various economies [4]

(B) the application of international e-commerce in foreign trade activities of enterprises

The basic situation of information construction and e-commerce application of trade enterprises in China can be summarized as follows:

1. The informatization construction of trading enterprises has a certain depth and breadth. Information construction involving customer asset management (CRM), business process management (BPM) and electronic data interchange (EDI) has been fully launched. Office automation and inventory management are superior to other applications, and business process management, EDI, ERP and human resource management are also widely used.

2. Trading enterprises began to turn to the Internet for information transmission and exchange. Internet communication tools such as email, QQ and MSN have been widely used.

3. It has become a common way for enterprises to collect information about "trade opportunities" by using the Internet. 80% of trading enterprises began to collect information about "trade opportunities" through the Internet. 82.40% of enterprises began to choose the third-party e-commerce platform to obtain trade opportunity information.

4. The application (business-to-government) business of trading enterprises in B2G has made rapid progress. With the deepening of the construction of China Jinguan Project, many import and export trade management businesses of China foreign trade authorities have been approved online. Its business mainly involves commerce, foreign exchange, quality inspection, customs and taxation. The information system used by freight forwarding enterprises is mainly used for document management, transportation management (land, sea and air), cargo tracking management and other business processing, and the internal and external information management and document processing are highly informationized.

There are still some obstacles and problems in the development of e-commerce. First, environmental barriers. The protection of electronic contracts is not enough, the legislation of electronic commerce is not mature, and the whole society has insufficient understanding of international electronic commerce, which seriously hinders the application of electronic commerce in foreign trade enterprises. The second is organizational obstacles. The government's organization of international e-commerce projects is not strong enough, the development of e-commerce in upstream and downstream enterprises is not coordinated, and many enterprises also lack strong organizations for e-commerce applications. Third, there is a lack of international e-commerce talents. Enterprises are not satisfied with the quality and structure of international e-commerce talents. It is difficult for e-commerce talents trained by the school to fully master e-commerce and foreign trade business; It has become very urgent to train business operators in e-commerce.

(C) the application of international e-commerce in all aspects of trade.

1. Application of paperless trade in inspection and quarantine

China General Administration of Inspection and Quarantine, with inspection and quarantine WAN as the backbone, reformed the existing inspection and quarantine supervision mode, established and improved the customs clearance cooperation mechanism, and established a new customs clearance system with the main contents of inspection and declaration first, data sharing and electronic customs clearance. The services currently provided by China Electronic Inspection and Quarantine Service Network include electronic inspection and quarantine, certificate of origin electronic visa and other related electronic services provided by AQSIQ. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the General Administration of Customs also developed an online verification system for electronic customs clearance forms, which was popularized and applied at major ports on June 5438+ 10/2003.

2. Application of paperless trade in certificate of origin application

Hong Kong launched the electronic certificate of origin service on August 1999, and fully used it on September 25th, 2000. Taiwan Province Province of China also launched the electronic service of certificate of origin on June 5438+ 10, 2002, and is currently carrying out bilateral cooperation projects with South Korea and other economies to realize the real electronic service.

3. The application of paperless trade in license application

In order to realize paperless trade, as one of the main projects of "Golden Gate Project", the trade license management has been continuously developed and improved from the application of 1986 single machine to the full implementation of networking. At present, all the 62 license issuing agencies in China have realized computerized license management and online verification of electronic data, and 4,922 enterprises in 27 provinces and 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government have participated in online license application. The proportion of export licenses applied by enterprises through the Internet to the total number of export licenses issued by the system increased from 14.43% in 2002 to 8 1.73%. The modern management mode of license network management has been widely recognized by license issuing agencies and enterprises.

4. The application of paperless trade in the field of international logistics

China container transport EDI adopts international, national and industry code standards. In the EDI demonstration project, the data elements involved in the messages used by China shipping enterprises all conform to the UN/EDIFACT data element catalogue, and the coded data elements adopt the existing international, national and industry standards for the first time. On-site EDI center management software of each demonstration project adopts AMTrix software uniformly purchased by the Ministry of Communications.

5. The application of paperless trade in international settlement

The General Administration of Customs and the banking system have carried out comprehensive cooperation in online payment services at electronic ports and established banking services. Yinguantong organically integrates the capital flow, logistics and information materials of import and export business, and has many characteristics such as centralized system docking, cross-border customs declaration payment, online payment of bank guarantee, and 24x7 service. , and provide integrated services such as centralized payment and settlement, financing and credit granting, and financial control for import and export enterprises. At present, ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and other 12 banks have opened the banking service.

(D) International e-commerce standardization construction

China began to build international e-commerce standards in the 1990s, and the national standards related to paperless trade have been basically completed (see Table 6.6).

Table 6.6 Status Table of Standardization Related to Paperless Trade

normal sort

Standard quantity

Corresponding international standards

comment

primary data

74

ISO/IEC、UN/EDIFACT、ISO、UN/ECE

Include data elements/information classification codes/metadata, etc.

Descriptive technique

10

ISO 9735、W3C、ISO/IEC

Markup language/grammar rules.

document format

44 EDI message standard

14 paper file format

Three XML message standards

UN/ECE, UNSM

Including publishing and developing document standards.

operation flow

eight

United Nations/CEFACT, BIM, ISO/IEC

Modeling language/business process standard.

electronic payment

20

VISA, MasterCard, SWIFT

Bank card/cash/check

safty standard

97

RFC、FIPS、ANSI、ISO/IEC、ITU

Encryption algorithm/security technology/e-mail security/network security /EDI security (including standards being formulated)

Chinese national standard GB/T 19709-2005 "Generation Rules of XML Schema for Electronic Data Interchange in Administration, Commerce and Transportation Based on EDI(FACT) Message Implementation Guide" is a national standard for transforming EDI messages into XML Schema(XSD on the basis of relevant international standards and combining with the actual situation in China.

On June 5438+February, 2006, the recommended national standard of RFID animal application, Animal Radio Frequency Identification Code Structure, was issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the State Standardization Administration Committee, and was implemented on June 5438+February 1 day.

On June 5438+ 10, 2007, the National Standardization Administration Committee issued the Digital Certificate Format of Public Key Infrastructure for Information Security Technology (GB/T 205 18-2006) and the Technical Specification of Specific Authority Management Center for Public Key Infrastructure for Information Security Technology (GB/T 20519) The three standards clearly define the format and content of the network pass-digital certificate, network authority management and encryption time.

(E) International e-commerce platform construction

1. Single window data exchange platform between Hong Kong Tradelink and DTTN logistics port.

There are about 654.38+03 million importers and exporters and manufacturers in Hong Kong, 98% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises. In order to help small and medium-sized enterprises enjoy the convenience brought by e-commerce at the lowest cost, the SAR government and private enterprises jointly established Tradelink Electronic Trading Co., Ltd. (the Hong Kong government holds 44% of the shares) in 1997, and established a Tradelink electronic trading platform. As of April 2005, the market penetration rate of Tradelink has reached 65,438+000%, with 53,000 users and an annual transaction volume of 654,387+07 million. All documents have the approved electronic authentication service license, electronic signature and encryption functions, and can be freely transmitted on the network.

Since 2005, the Hong Kong government has launched the DTTN digital logistics port project to improve the competitiveness of the free port. The purpose is to establish a commercial data exchange platform with logistics port as the core, which is compatible with and interoperable with various data exchange standards. In 2006, the project was officially completed and put into operation, and Tradelink became a subsystem of DTTN. As of June 2007, the number of initial users has reached more than 3,000. DTTN project is an important measure to promote paperless trade in Hong Kong towards a single window.

2. China International E-commerce Platform

The online Canton Fair operated by China International Electronic Commerce Center, as a pioneer of paperless trade services, breaks the time and space boundaries and provides opportunities for enterprises unable to attend the on-site Canton Fair online. After nearly ten years of development, the online Canton Fair has the largest database of overseas buyers in China, providing daily updated global purchasing information for China suppliers. At the same time, it provides a series of online trading services with foreign trade transaction process as the core to member enterprises. The cumulative visits of the three major stations of the 99th Canton Fair (www.cecf.com.cn, www.cantonfair.org.cn and ebusiness.cantonfair.org.cn) reached more than 50 million times, and the online intentional turnover of e-commerce reached 340 million US dollars. The cumulative visits of the three major websites of the100th Canton Fair reached 56.99 million, up 5.7% compared with the 99th Canton Fair, and the online intentional turnover of e-commerce was 360 million US dollars, up 4.8%.

In April, 2006, China International E-commerce of the Ministry of Commerce officially launched ——TradeMatics, which is a platform for international trade enterprises in China to apply e-commerce. The first-phase enterprise application e-commerce platform "Trade Autolink" includes two core platforms: the international trade e-commerce execution platform and the global trade transaction management collaborative operation platform. Based on the Internet model, the implementation platform provides standardized international trade operation procedures for export-oriented enterprises through the analysis of the whole process of international trade, and realizes the client browser operation of inquiry and quotation, order, letter of credit, quality inspection, documents, customs declaration, transportation, insurance, foreign exchange collection, verification and tax refund. Realize the management, inquiry and call of basic information and customs declaration code necessary for commodities, customers and international trade; It will gradually realize the docking with domestic government affairs platforms, other business platforms, government supervision systems and service enterprise systems. This will greatly simplify the operation process of China's foreign trade business, improve the communication efficiency between Chinese and foreign trading partners, reduce the operating costs of foreign trade enterprises, and realize paperless operation within foreign trade enterprises and efficient exchange of foreign electronic data.

3. China Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Website

Since 2004, the Ministry of Commerce has established websites in cooperation with commercial authorities of countries and multilateral organizations such as Russia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa, Kenya and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Chinese and foreign countries use information technology to establish websites on the Internet, and set up columns such as "economic and trade information", "investment promotion" and "trade opportunities" in Chinese and foreign languages to provide Chinese and foreign enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, with business information such as economic and trade policies and regulations, trade and investment opportunities, economic and technological cooperation projects, enterprises and products of the two countries.

According to statistics, since the opening of Sino-foreign cooperation websites, 67,930 business information in Chinese and foreign languages have been published, with a cumulative visit of 38.59 million times, with an average daily visit of1.5000 times. Small and medium-sized enterprises account for the majority of website visitors.

Strategies and measures for developing international e-commerce in China

(A) the overall strategy of international e-commerce in China

The overall strategy of international e-commerce should put forward the guiding ideology, overall planning and policy orientation of China's international e-commerce from a macro perspective, and design implementation measures.

1. Organize forces to study the national international e-commerce development strategic plan. China's international e-commerce development strategy should start from the strategic height of national economic development, study the development environment of e-commerce, and put forward the strategic objectives, strategic guiding ideology, strategic focus, strategic measures and organizational management system for developing international e-commerce in view of China's current development status and existing problems.

2. Determine the key areas, cities and industries for the development of international e-commerce. Coastal areas (such as Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangdong, etc. ), municipalities directly under the central government and some provincial capitals, as well as industries that are easy to conduct international e-commerce transactions (such as steel, petroleum, chemical industry, etc.). ) should become the focus of international e-commerce development in China.

3. Coordinate matters related to the overall development of international e-commerce. The determination of international e-commerce demonstration sites should consider regional distribution and industry distribution. For the links with * * * in the development of e-commerce, it is necessary to make overall plans, unify standards and steps, and avoid fragmentation.

4. According to the demand of international e-commerce, relevant policies are issued, including preferential tax policies, financial support, corresponding differential policies and preferential measures for central and western regions and remote areas, and coordinating the relationship between central and local governments, enterprises and management departments. , thus promoting the development of e-commerce.

5. Strengthen coordination among different departments. International e-commerce is a huge systematic project, and many departments participate in each link. Finance, taxation, industry and commerce departments should proceed from the overall situation of national economic development, support the development of e-commerce, and actively solve the problems in the development of e-commerce.

(B) International e-commerce development measures

1. Make every effort to promote paperless trade and improve international trade efficiency.

(1) Promote the application of paperless trade in the whole international trade transaction chain with the paperless trade of customs as the leader. Accelerate the development of trade license management, customs clearance, commodity inspection and other service areas closely related to the development of paperless trade, improve service quality and efficiency, and enhance the value of enterprise supply chain. Taking "high efficiency and low cost" as the goal, we will build a "single window service platform" for modern business service industry from a high starting point.

(2) Accelerate the application of paperless trade means in basic industries and improve the overall level of modern trade service industry. For example, international transportation is a relatively mature industry, and paperless trade was applied earlier. From the strategic height of sustainable development, planning and construction of modern logistics information paperless service focusing on water transport and aviation. At the same time, we should attach importance to other highly related paperless trade service projects, foster the development of international settlement and transnational transactions, and lay a solid foundation for the development of large-scale paperless trade in the future.

(3) Promote the coordinated development of regional economy and paperless trade. Regional economic development is the focus of China's economic development. In the process of developing modern trade services in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Bohai Economic Belt, we should pay attention to the application of paperless trade means, form a combination of service products, and form a situation in which regional economy and paperless trade promote each other.

(4) Deregulation to promote competition. Encourage non-state-owned economy to participate in the development of modern trade and service industry in a wider range. In some fields with natural monopoly attributes, for competitive service links and services (such as customs declaration services for public services such as trade management, customs, inspection and taxation), we should take the initiative to cancel the entry threshold and open competition. Gradually eliminate the confusion between business behavior and business behavior of public institutions. According to the principle of separating government from enterprises, separating government from business, separating enterprises from institutions, and separating profit-making organizations from non-profit organizations, we will accelerate the industrialization process in areas suitable for industrialization. Public service institutions should gradually separate public services from commercial services to form a healthy competitive environment for modern trade services.

(5) Improve standards and regulations and improve the business environment. To develop paperless trade, standards are the foundation. Establish and form a standard system that is in line with international standards, China's national conditions and meets the needs of actual construction as soon as possible. Under this standard system, we should plan out the specific standards needed in the construction of modern trade services in China. At the same time, we should strengthen the research on electronic bills of lading, foreign exchange settlement vouchers, trade jurisdiction, legal liability of service platforms and other issues.

(6) Strengthen international cooperation in the field of paperless trade. Actively carry out cooperation with APEC and relevant international organizations. Participate in the formulation of relevant international standards and conventions, support and promote the development of modern international trade services, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises in modern international trade activities.

2. Actively promote the development of B2B international e-commerce platform.

At present, 80% of global e-commerce transactions are completed through B2B transactions. B2B transaction involves the key link of e-commerce. Doing B2B e-commerce well is of great significance to the construction of e-commerce transaction system and enterprise informatization.

(1) Encourage large enterprise groups to use their own e-commerce platforms to carry out international e-commerce and expand foreign e-commerce transactions by economic means (such as taxes and loans); Encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to establish their own e-commerce websites and carry out international e-commerce.