Research on the Impact of RTA Digital Trade Rule Depth on Services Global Value Chains

The accelerated development of digital trade has emerged as a pivotal driver of international commerce and economic expansion, catalyzing structural transformations in global trade patterns and profound supply chain realignments while exerting novel influences on economic globalization. Major world economies strategically prioritize digital economy advancement to harness opportunities presented by technological and industrial revolutions, concurrently demanding increasingly sophisticated institutional environments and regulatory coordination for open digital trade. Consequently, digital trade rules have become the focal point for restructuring international economic governance frameworks and a critical domain for stakeholder contention. Utilizing the TAPED database, this research quantifies the depth of digital trade provisions in regional trade agreements enacted during 2005-2018. Through OECD-TIVA data and Koopman's methodological framework, we compute service sector global value chain (GVC) metrics to empirically examine how RTA digital rule depth influences service GVC participation. Our analysis reveals that deeper digital rule integration significantly enhances service GVC engagement—strengthening overall integration and forward participation while demonstrating negligible effects on backward participation. Methodologically, this investigation employs integrated qualitative and quantitative approaches to dissect the complex relationship between digital rule sophistication in RTAs and service GVC participation dynamics.