Institute for Internet Policy & Law @ Beijing Normal University

On March 20-22, 2018, UNESCAP Legal and Technical Working Group Meeting, Interim Intergovernmental Steering Group Meeting and Capacity Building Workshop on Cross-Border Paperless Trade were held in the United Naitons Conference Center in Bangkok. Prof. Xue, as the Chair of Legal Panel of UNNeXT and initial drafter of the Issue Paper of the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific was invited to participate in all three meeting series.

The meetings, which brought together 42 nominated participants and 7 regional experts, was opened with remarks by Mr. Yann Duval, Chief, Trade Policy and Facilitation Section, Trade, Investment and Innovation Division of the United Nations ESCAP. Prof. Xue made substantive contributions to the drafting and review of the Legal Gap Checklist and overview of the draft road map and its supporting documents. The meeting briefly reviewed the current draft road map of the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific. More than 30 countries reported on pilot cross-border paperless trade initiatives and projects. All the participants updated the meeting on their progress in paperless trade, and several countries reported their cross-border data exchange initiatives. The Framework Agreement came into being after receiving signatories fromf Armenia, Bangladesh, Combodia and China and is going to be accessed by Azerbaijan. It’s expected to enter into force in 2018 or 2019.

The Public-Private Dialogue on Existing and Emerging issues related to E-commerce and the Digital Economy was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 3rd March, 2018, along with the APEC Senior Official Meetings. At the meeting, the participants discussed the development and dissemination of new technologies (cloud computing and big data), introduce the views to provisions related to Online Consumer Protection, Personal Information Protection, Electronic Authentication and Electronic Signatures, Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Messages, and reviewed the development of electronic transmitted content in APEC Economies.

Prof. Xue, appointed by the Ministry of Commerce as the national e-commerce expert, joined the conference and presented on the progress of the Chinese Draft E-Commerce Law, UNESCAP Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade and correlation of domain name system and internaitonal trade. Prof. Xue also exchanged the views with many other international experts and other economies’ governmental delegates.

为电子商务持续健康发展提供保障

2018-09-04 □　本报记者蒲晓磊

2018年8月31日,十三届全国人大常委会第五次会议表决通过了电子商务法。该法于2019年1月1日起施行。这部历经全国人大常委会4次审议、3次公开征求意见、历时5年出台的法律,自启动立法以来就备受关注。尤其是在我国电子商务持续多年保持高速发展的背景下,电子商务法的作用被各方主体赋予更多期待。《法制日报》特辟“解读电子商务法”专栏推出系列报道,围绕电子商务法的立法思路、立法亮点等,采访多位参与电子商务法立法调研工作的专家进行解读。
这是我国电子商务法发展史上具有里程碑意义的时刻。2018年8月31日,十三届全国人大常委会第五次会议以167票赞成、1票反对、3票弃权,表决通过了电子商务法。用5年时间打磨的电子商务法,虽未初试锋芒,却已备受社会期待和关注。
近日,《法制日报》记者采访了多位参与电子商务法立法调研工作的专家,对电子商务法的重点章节和立法思路进行解读。
保障电子商务各方主体合法权益
我国经济已进入新常态。电子商务持续多年保持高速发展,同时,发展过程中一些矛盾和问题凸显。在这样的背景下,我国电子商务领域需要一部综合性和基础性的法律——电子商务法。2013年9月2日,中央批准《十二届全国人大常委会立法规划》,电子商务法列为第二类立法项目,由全国人大财经委负责牵头该法草案的起草工作。自此开始,电子商务法就进入到社会公众的视野中。在经过了近百次调研和讨论、历经全国人大常委会四次审议之后,终于在五年后的今天出台。关于立法目的,电子商务法第一条规定,为了保障电子商务各方主体的合法权益,规范电子商务行为,维护市场秩序,促进电子商务持续健康发展,制定本法。

对电子合同订立与履行作出规范
“以电子商务合同订立与履行为核心,以电子支付及快递物流为两翼,创新、丰富与发展了我国合同法律制度。”北京师范大学法学院教授薛虹这样看待第三章“电子商务合同的订立与履行”。
“关于电子商务合同自动信息系统的法律归属与效力的规定,对于我国方兴未艾的区块链、智能合同等技术的发展应用提供了极为重要的法律支持,奠定了我国数字经济环境下新型交易法的基础,对我国消费者保护、格式合同规范、国际贸易等诸多方面具有重大的法律意义。关于电子商务合同当事人的行为能力推定、标的交付时间的规定,也是维护电子交易安全的重要法律规范。”薛虹说。
薛虹指出,本章关于电子支付与快递物流的规定明确了有关各方的权利、义务与法律后果。在我国尚无电子支付相关法律、行政法规的情况下,该部分规定是对我国法律体系的重大发展与补充,为我国电子商务的健康发展提供了重要的法律支撑。

在四次审议过程中,关于跨境电商的内容有过多次变动。在看完相关规定之后,薛虹认为,我国电子商务立法必将引领全球电子商务法律发展,促进相关国际法律规则的进步。
薛虹指出,为适应跨境电子商务的特点,第五章建立了海关、税收、进出境检验检疫、支付结算等多个部门的信息共享、监管互认、执法互助的进出口协调监管制度(即“单一窗口”机制),承认进出口单证的电子化(“无纸化贸易”措施),切实提高对外贸易的便利化水平,并认可与支持跨境电子商务综合服务,支持小微企业参与跨境电子商务活动。
“同时,为实施‘一带一路’、自由贸易区等对外开放战略,第七十三条规定,国家推动建立与不同国家、地区之间跨境电子商务的交流合作,参与电子商务国际规则的制定,促进电子签名、电子身份等国际互认。”薛虹说。

2^nd Working Conference of 2^nd Expert Committee of APEC E-Commerce Business Alliance

  APEC Expert Committee for E-Commerce Business Alliance held its 2017 annual conference on 16^th December, 2017 in Maison Albar Hotel, Chengdu, China. The conference was hosted by China International Electronic Commerce Center and  APEC E-Commerce Business Alliance Secretariat, organized by China International Electronic Commerce Co. LTD and Intelligence Industry Committee of APEC-ECBA, and supported by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. APEC Research Center for Innovation and Development of Cross-border E-Commerce,  Chengdu Chengshi Culture Communication Co. LTD. and Sichuan Haidiya Technology Co. LTD were the co-organizers.

Prof. Xue gave a keynote presentation at the Conference on Chinese Draft E-Commerce Law and highlighted the key characteristics of the upcoming new Law that will be essential for the development of digital economy in the world as well as in China. Prof. Xue also actively took part in the expert discussion on global inclusive trade and pointed out that trade should not only benefit all the stakeholder involved (inclusive of currently disfranchised MSMEs, women and LDCs) but low or even eliminate barriers for accessing the global market. E-commerce’s potential to enable any business to access the borderless global access should not be reined by the traditional regulatory measures on exports and imports. New trade facilitation mechanisms, such as the enabling cross-border paperless trade through the UN Framework Agreement in Asia the Pacific , should be implemented for e-commerce and digital economy. Arbitrary distinctions and compliance measures (between goods and items or traders and buyers) should be reformed. Unification, simplification, digitization and automation should be the trend of development.

Agenda

Topic 1：APEC E-Commerce Development Report (2017) studying and best practice cases sharing

Moderator：Wang Jian, Chair of the Expert Committee, APEC-ECBA,  Director of APEC Cross-Border E-Commerce Innovation and Development Research Center

Armirudin Abdul Wahab, CEO Cyber Security Agency of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia

“Embracing The Growth and Trending Demand of E-Commerce in Malaysia”

Xue Hong, Director of Beijing Normal University Institute for Internet Policy & Law (IIPL) , Co-Director of UNCITRAL-BNU Joint Certificate Program on International E-Commerce Law

“An Overview of China’s Draft E-Commerce Law”

Qiu Qiong, Associate Dean, Research Institute of CIECC

“Global E-Commerce Report”

ž   Ouyang Cheng, Director of Cross-Border E-commerce Research Center of Alibaba Research Institute, Senior Expert of Alibaba Research Institute

“Report of Inclusive Trade Development and Chinese E-Commerce Practices”

Li Qian, VP- Public Affair and Policy, Amazon China

“Amazon China Releases the Cross-Border Online Shopping Trend Report 2016”

Topic 2： ”Jinjiang Proposal” Framework and 2018 Work Plan

Moderator：Wang Jian, Chair of the Expert Committee, APEC-ECBA

ž   Framework based on “Jinjiang Proposal” by Wang Jian

ž   Discussion on the framework

随着全球电子商务的发展，保护生产商和消费者权益愈来愈成为电子商务领域关注的焦点。为进一步发挥专业委员会作用，搭建行业专家交流平台，推动国际电子商务争议解决机制的研究和建立，促进形成以我为主的规则制定氛围，国际商会中国国家委员会仲裁委员会于2017年12月15日下午在国际商会大厦506会议室召开电子商务争议解决研讨会暨国际商会中国国家委员会（ICC China）仲裁委员会2017年下半年工作会议。ICC China仲裁委员会副主席、贸仲委副秘书长李虎博士，北京师范大学互联网政策与法律研究中心主任薛虹教授，ICC仲裁院委员、方达律师事务所合伙人师虹律师，阿里巴巴集团法务部樊俊伟高级法务等电子商务争议解决领域的专家在研讨会主题发言。薛虹教授介绍了我国《电子商务法》（草案）二次审议稿中关于电子商务争议解决章节的内容，深入分析该法的实施对于电子商务企业（特别是平台企业）的影响及我国网上争议解决制度的重大发展。薛教授还讨论了欧盟关于消费者非诉讼性争议解决指令及网上争议解决法规的主要内容及实施情况，分析了联合国国际贸易法委员会曾经存在的网上争议解决工作组及其所形成的“非约束性、仅供参考”的技术指南等国际法律文件。

与参会代表共同探讨全球电子商务争议解决的需求、现状和方式选择，并介绍和发布《当事人与仲裁庭在国际商会仲裁规则下参与仲裁程序的指引》、讨论ICC仲裁委员会2017年秋季会议成果等。薛教授详细解答了与会的企事业代表关于电子商务立法情况的各类问题。