Legal Regulation of China’s Cross-border E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Areas: A Russian Perspective

Abstract

Since 2015 China has been actively developing the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot areas. They are one of the mechanisms that the PRC has been promoting international trade in the digital era. Enterprises registered in the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot areas enjoy preferential tax policies and may draw upon the support measures delivered by provinces and municipalities. The State Council also introduced the “Six Systems and Two Platforms” principle which revolutionized the sphere of public administration of cross- border e-commerce trade. This helps to solve many the problems concerning taxation, customs clearance and logistics. Analysis of Chinese legislation and local regulations illustrates that the PRC elaborated a new type of economic zone integrating small and medium sized enterprises into the global trade market. A comparison of Chinese policy with a Russian initiative to introduce new experimental regimes for foreign online trade shows that both states could cooperate by establishing a joint mechanism for cross-border e-commerce promotion. Russia also could use China’s experience in order to launch its own system of cross-border e-commerce support.