Digitalization of international trade relations: advantages and contradictions

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26565/2310-9513-2025-21-04

Keywords:

international trade relations, digitalization, information and communication technologies, e-commerce, internet platforms, global value chains, USA, China, developing countries

Abstract

The article considers the features of the development of international trade relations in the context of the formation of the global digital economy. The increasingly active use of the latest information and communication technologies significantly accelerates export-import transactions, allows to significantly expand the circle of participants in the cross-border turnover of goods and services, and involve new resources in it. The goal is to analyze the impact of the digitalization process on international trade relations, their dynamics, new forms and contradictions. General scientific methods are used, such as logical analysis and comparison, as well as methods of generalization and processing of information using economic and statistical methods of analysis. The following results were obtained: using the potential of modern information and communication technologies has given rise to new megatrends in international trade relations. E-commerce is not just growing in absolute and relative terms, but is forming new trends in cross-border trade relations, primarily due to the comparative advantages generated by digitalization. Platform solutions have acquired particular importance. At the same time, in addition to the undoubted positive effects, the growth in the scale and importance of e-commerce creates a number of problems, in particular, additional prerequisites for the monopolization of trade between countries are being formed. Fundamental issues of regulation of this new sphere of international interaction require resolution. Conclusions: All countries are now involved in one way or another in the processes taking place in the global digital space, including in the international e-commerce segment. They are to develop advanced national information and computer technologies with critically thoughtful consideration of foreign experience, create their own electronic trading platforms and extensive digital infrastructure, and improve the legislative framework. This creates a solid potential for resolving bottlenecks in world trade and the global economy as a whole, for resolving accumulated contradictions and mutual claims.

References

Asian Development Bank. (2023). Aid for Trade in Asia and the Pacific: Thinking forward about trade costs and the digital economy (54 p.). Mandaluyong City, Philippines. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11540/5084

Beckerman, W. (1956). Distance and the pattern of intra European trade. Review of Economics and Statistics, 38, 31–40. Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/17858/1/17858.pdf

Blum, B., & Goldfarb, A. (2020). Does the Internet defy the law of gravity? Journal of International Economics, 70, 384–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2020.10.002

Cairncross, F. (2021). The death of distance: How the communications revolution will change our lives (320 p.). Harvard Business Review Press. Available at: https://www.coursesidekick.com/economics/3790813

Church, J., & King, I. (1993). Bilingualism and network externalities. Canadian Journal of Economics, 26, 337–345. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/135911

Cowgill, B., Dorobantu, C., & Martens, B. (2023). Does online trade live up to the promise of a borderless world? Evidence from the EU Digital Single Market (Digital Economy Working Paper 2023/08). Joint Research Centre, European Commission. Available at: http://www.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

UNCTAD. (2019). Digital Economy Report 2023: Value creation and capture: Implications for developing countries (172 p.). New York/Geneva. Available at: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/der2019_en.pdf

Dovgal, O., & Dovgal, G. (2021). Informatization as a catalyst for transition to the knowledge society. Економічний простір, 169, 29–34. https://doi.org/10.32782/2224-6282/169-5

Dovgal, E., Dovgal, G., & Ishchenko, M. (2021). Prospects for digitalization of the economy of Ukraine: Opportunities and threats. The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: International Relations. Economics. Country Studies. Tourism, 13, 78–88. https://doi.org/10.26565/2310-9513-2021-13-08

Duch Brown, N., & Martens, B. (2018, August). A new perspective on the exporter productivity premium: Online trade. Routledge Journals, 25(14), 989–993. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2017.1391988

Dugiel, W., & Latoszek, E. (2020). Electronic trade in the World Trade Organization – Difficulties in negotiating an agreement? The International Journal of Economic Behavior, 8, 133–143. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/69112780/Electronic_Trade_in_the_World_Trade_Organization_Difficulties_in_Negotiating_an_Agreement

Freund, C., & Weinhold, D. (2022). The effect of the Internet on international trade. Journal of International Economy, 62, 71–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1996(03)00059-X

Freund, C., & Weinhold, D. (2022). The Internet and international trade in services. American Economic Review, 92(2), 236–240. https://doi.org/10.1257/000282802320189320

UNCTAD. (2022, March 29). Global e commerce sales surged to $29 trillion. https://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=2034

Hodgson, C. (2020, November 13). Can the digital revolution be environmentally sustainable? The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global/blog/2020/nov/13/digitalrevolutionenvironmentalsustainable

Kaiser, U., & Wright, J. (2006). Price structure in two sided markets: Evidence from the magazine industry. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 24(1), 128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2005.06.002

Ming Ye, Meng, B., & Wei, S. (2020, August 27). Measuring smile curves in global value chains (IDE Discussion Paper No. 530). https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12364

Negroponte, N. (1995). Being digital (243 p.). Alfred A. Knopf. Available at: https://web.stanford.edu/class/sts175/NewFiles/Negroponte.%20Being%20Digital.pdf

Rysman, M. (2009). The economics of two sided markets. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(3), 125–143. Available at: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.23.3.125

Shapiro, C., & Varian, H. (1999). Information rules: A strategic guide to the network economy (352 p.). Harvard Business School Press. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200167344_Information_Rules_A_Strategic_Guide_to_The_Network_Economy

Shy, O. (2001). The economics of network industries (315 p.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511754401

UNIDO International Trade Centre. (2023). Status: Opportunities and challenges of BRICS e commerce (73 p.). Vienna. Available at: https://hub.unido.org/news/report-status-opportunities-and-challenges-brics-e-commerce

Tang, L. (2023). Communication costs and trade of differentiated goods. Review of International Economics, 14(1), 54–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9396.2006.00560.x

Tapscott, D. (1995). The digital economy: Promise and peril in the age of networked intelligence (342 p.). McGraw Hill. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.33-5199

World Bank. (2021, April). Technological innovation, supply chain trade, and workers in a globalized world (Global Value Chain Development Report 2021) (196 p.). Washington, DC. Available at: https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/384161555079173489/global-value-chain-development-report-2021-technological-innovation-supply-chain-trade-and-workers-in-a-globalized-world

UNCTAD. (2023). Trade and development 2023: Power, platforms and free trade delusion (132 p.). New York/Geneva. Available at: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/tdr2023_en.pdf

Wallace, C., & Brandi, C. (2019). Governing digital trade – A new role for the WTO (Briefing Paper No. 6). Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik. https://doi.org/10.23661/bp6.2019

OECD. (2023). Who’s smiling now? OECD Observer, (296), Q3. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/1503533240?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals

World Trade Organization. (2021, December 13). Work programme on electronic commerce: Draft ministerial decision of 13 December 2021 (WT/MIN(17)/65; WT/L/1032). In Ministerial Conference Eleventh Session, Buenos Aires, December 10–13, 2021 (5 p.). Available at:https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/ecom_e/ecom_work_programme_e.htm

Downloads

Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Digitalization of international trade relations: advantages and contradictions. (2025). The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: International Relations. Economics. Country Studies. Tourism, 21, 38-46. https://doi.org/10.26565/2310-9513-2025-21-04