Beijing has clashed with a number of Western nations over proposed global rules to govern the $25 trillion e-commerce industry, sources told Bloomberg, potentially leading to China being excluded from the agreement.
Negotiations for the new rules will begin on Friday at Davos, at which industry leaders will hash out a cross-border legal framework to regulate but also facilitate and promote e-commerce, the people said.
China, which is poised to process $5.5 trillion in e-commerce transactions this year, making the market the world’s largest, has attempted to influence a statement to be released at the start of the negotiations, according to the sources.
While US giants like Amazon and Facebook would benefit from an industry with lower barriers and data restrictions, should China not sign up to the accords, its domestic players including Alibaba and Baidu would operate under a parallel system.