Digital Services Trade between China and V4 Countries – A Study of Trade Complementarity and Regulatory Restrictiveness

Abstract

Digital services trade has definitely played an important role in the innovation of the bilateral trade cooperation mechanism between China and the Visegrád Group (V4), but the complementarity of their bilateral digital services trade has been little studied. We examine the complementarity of V4 countries’ digital services trade with China, based on the UNCTAD classification of ICT-enabled services. The results show that the V4 countries have complementarity with China mainly in education services, intellectual property fees, architectural and engineering services. However, we also find that the regulatory heterogeneity of digital services between China and the V4 countries is negatively associated with their bilateral trade. Therefore, China and V4 countries should better enhance regulatory policy synergy for future trade cooperation in digital services.