Governing Cross-Border Data Flows: International Trade Agreements and Their Limits

In modern international competition and cooperation, digital trade rules centered on the cross-border flow of data have become a competitive advantage for countries. Under guidance commercial freedom, United States chooses to actively promote free across borders. The European Union has placed protection personal rights before through General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), developing countries generally reserve space industry policy interpretation. As one world’s largest economies, facing needs domestic industrial development pressure systems, China’s flows’ is ensure flows under premise security, information, seek coordination rules, freedom transmission. key question, therefore, how facilitate interoperability or find middle ground among divergent approaches in order avoid fragmentation system. article suggests that thin narrowly scoped WTO agreement e-commerce with sufficient accommodate different needs, preferences priorities, local contexts via legitimate exception provisions would be welcome movement.