Recently, the national and pilot free trade zone versions of the negative list for cross-border service trade were officially released. This marks the first time that China has established a negative list management system for cross-border service trade nationwide. Industry experts interviewed by Economic Reference Daily stated that the release of the two negative lists is an important measure for China to proactively benchmark against international high standard economic and trade rules and promote institutional openness, which will provide new opportunities for global service trade opening and cooperation. Specifically, the negative list of cross-border service trade is classified by national economic industries and uniformly lists special management measures for overseas service providers to provide services through cross-border delivery, overseas consumption, and natural person mobility models. The national and pilot free trade zone versions of the negative list for cross-border service trade both involve 11 categories, including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, construction, wholesale and retail, transportation, warehousing and postal services, information transmission, software and information technology services, finance, leasing and business services, scientific research and technology services, education, health and social work, culture, sports and entertainment. Among them, there are a total of 71 negative lists for cross-border service trade in the national version, and 68 negative lists for cross-border service trade in the free trade pilot zone version. In response, Li Jun, Director of the International Service Trade Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told the Economic Reference Daily that this will compile and list the access measures that were previously scattered in various specific industries, clarifying the "baseline" for cross-border service trade access, which is conducive to improving the transparency and predictability of cross-border service trade management. Zheng Wei, Deputy Researcher of China Service Outsourcing Research Center, told reporters that the negative list management model will greatly enhance the openness and convenience level of China's service trade cross-border delivery, overseas consumption, and natural person movement models. "China's adoption of a negative list management model for cross-border service trade is not only a beneficial attempt in China's trade management model, but also conducive to China's integration with international high-level management methods in service trade management." Li Jun said that the Ministry of Commerce has released the Hainan Free Trade Port version of the negative list for cross-border service trade in July 2021. This is the first negative list in China's cross-border service trade field. Over the past two years, the implementation of the Hainan version of the list has achieved results, promoting rapid growth in the scale of local service trade. From the data, according to statistics from Hainan, the import and export of services in Hainan Province increased by 29.6% year-on-year in 2023. "The pioneering exploration of Hainan Free Trade Port has laid the foundation and accumulated experience for the implementation of the negative list management system for cross-border service trade nationwide," said Li Jun. He also stated that a higher level of openness in the field of service trade is necessary for the development of trade. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, international service trade has developed rapidly in the past decade, with an average annual growth rate of global cross-border service trade 1.5 times that of goods trade during the same period, and its proportion in global trade has increased to 22%. The heads of the Service and Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce and the Port Department of the Free Trade Zone stated that with the rapid breakthrough of digital technology and the deepening development of digital transformation in various fields, the potential of cross-border service trade will be further stimulated, becoming a key driver of global trade growth