Editor's note: The second Forum on the Rule of Law in Global Digital Trade was held on November 24, 2023 as part of the second Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. The forum aimed to facilitate international dialogues on strengthening rulemaking, regulations, management, and standards in digital trade, fostering global perspectives on reforms and institutional openness. Anna Veneziano, Deputy Secretary-General at the Rome-headquartered International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), was among the international experts attending. In an interview with CGTN's Sr. International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya, Veneziano discussed China's growing influence and significant role in shaping global legal frameworks for digital trade. The views expressed in the video are her own and not necessarily those of CGTN.

CGTN: What are your first impressions of the Second Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou a China's rapid strides in digital trade in recent years? And how it contributes to the emerging landscape of global digital economy?

Anna Veneziano: First of all, I'm really impressed by the expo, which I had the pleasure of visiting, even if briefly. And as a lawyer and as the Deputy Secretary-General of UNIDROIT, which is an intergovernmental organization, I deal mostly with the law and also how the law can help and enable the global digital trade. And therefore, we see a lot of opportunities and possibilities here.

The way that China is contributing to this is from a practical perspective through the technology, but we see that China and Chinese experts are participating in UNIDROIT's activities, (and) are also helping in the development of the legal and global legal framework. And we think this is a particularly important role that they are playing.

CGTN: As Deputy Secretary-General of UNIDROIT, you bring a unique perspective to the forum. How do you view China's contributions to shaping international rules and regulations in digital trade? And how is it cooperating with the other stakeholders such as the EU and the U.S. on broader global economic and legal frameworks?

Anna Veneziano: UNIDROIT is an intergovernmental organization. It has been for almost 100 years, because it was part of the League of Nations. We develop different types of harmonized or uniform laws and instruments from treaties to principles of law, the legislative guidance. And we do so in collaboration with other intergovernmental organizations, but also with participation of experts and the private sector. So, the idea is to develop balanced and transparent rules and transparent legal framework.

And China has been very active in contributing to the development of this legal framework through the activity of the government itself as a member state of UNIDROIT, through the activity of specific experts, academic experts, and also other entities, (and) also through another way which is agreements we have for legal officers to come from China to UNIDROIT for a certain amount of time and work together with us in the development of these enabling legal framework, global legal framework.

CGTN: In an increasingly polarized world, we have witnessed trade, digital tech and international financial instruments being politicized with the U.S. and China, as the world's two leading powers, increasingly at loggerheads. How do you see this perceived China-U.S. rivalry or competition will impact global digital trade and framing of the laws that will govern the sector?

Anna Veneziano: I can only share the experience of my organization, where we see that all our 65 member states are really cooperating very actively together. And China is a major player. The influence and importance of China's participation has grown over the years. And now it's really one of the major participants in the developments of our activities.

In our experience, because we deal with private and commercial law, we see that there is cooperation going on, and we see that actually, in the end, all our participants want things to function and want the global electronic commerce (e-commerce) to continue. And therefore, in this regard, we see cooperation more than rivalry. At least this is the experience we have within the realm of our member states.

CGTN: There has been a perception in a large number of Global South countries that the current international laws favor the West as most of these global frameworks were developed by the Western countries in a post-World War-era. How important it is to include the Global South in framing of the frameworks that will govern the global digital trade?

Anna Veneziano: I think you really put a very important question, because one of the attitudes that we had seen in the past was that good legal frameworks were developed, and then they were offered to the Global South as solutions to problems, which is fine, because they were good legal frameworks. But at the same time, what we want to have now is the direct participation of actors from the Global South in the development of these instruments from the start, and in telling us what the problems are and whether there are problems that perhaps could be overlooked and ways of implementing global rules.

Because they are global, they need to have a specific implementation which might be different and take the different economic, social realities into account. This is what we try to do with our member states, with the connecting states and with experts coming from all over the world. But I must say we have to improve this. We have to do more.