Interactions Between Cybersecurity and International Trade: A Systematic Framework

Abstract

Issues of international trade policy have gained increased attention while cybersecurity has not been a key issue for trade policy until recently. Cybersecurity concerns have presented significant challenges, and cybersecurity-related allegations have become a major source of growing commercial disputes. The future of cybersecurity in international trade will shape not only cyberspace for the countries directly, but also the broader globalized society. However, it is still not clear how cybersecurity and international trade can impact each other, whether the current implemented policies can sufficiently resolve problems, and what can be done to retune the negative impacts of cybersecurity concerns on international trade. To investigate these influences, this paper uses real-world case study, in-depth domain subject expert interviews and workshop practices to develop a systematic framework to understand the relations between cybersecurity concern and international trade. We focus on the different types of cybersecurity concerns, national and organizational actions for cybersecurity concerns and global supply chain management. From these we identify three scenarios (regulation compliance scenario, supply chain strategy scenario and geopolitical scenario) and three mechanisms (the gap between national cybersecurity concerns, public-private cybersecurity management and supply chain risk management) which represent the interaction between cybersecurity concern and international trade. This study reveals that cybersecurity concerns in international trade are not just a regulation compliance issue but should be considered a business strategy issue and geopolitical issue. More importantly, to return the current “tit for tat” circle, businesses should not only passively react to cybersecurity concerns in international trade context, but need to actively involve themselves in cybersecurity concerns mitigation and policy implementation procedures. In this way, cybersecurity concern pressure can even be used to improve the global supply chain and create competitive advantage.