Abstract: Accelerating the alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules in the digital domain is of great significance for releasing the growth potential of digital trade. By making use of Trade Agreements Provisions on Electronic-Commerce and Data from 2000 to 2022 and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Statistical Database, this study examines the impact of international high standard economic and trade rules in the digital field on digital trade from the perspective of post border clauses in free trade agreements. The findings show that international high standard economic and trade rules in the digital field have a significant promoting effect on digital trade. Among them, the promoting effect of inclusive rule docking is more prominent, while the restrictive rule docking presents restraining effects. Its mechanism of action mainly includes the support effect of the digital industry and the reconstruction effect of the digital network. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotion effect of digital service clauses is the strongest, followed by digital intellectual property and digital investment clauses, while the role of competition policy clauses is relatively weaker. The expansion analysis reveals that there are differences in the impact of different institutional integration paths on digital trade. The promotion effect of China, the United States, or the joint accession of China and the United States to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership is particularly evident, while the accession or rule integration of some developing countries may have inhibitory effects on digital trade. In addition, international high standard economic and trade rules in the non digital field indirectly promote the development of digital trade through innovative factor activation effects, business environment optimization effects, and human capital adaptation effects. Therefore, countries should prioritize promoting the implementation of inclusive rules and avoid blindly exporting systems. At the same time, they should strengthen the support capacity of the digital industry and the access rules of hierarchical classification, thus forming a gradient based regional rule adaptation path.

Key words: high-standard international economic and trade rules, post-border provisions in free trade agreements, digital trade