The 10th Conference on Standardization of Trade in Services was held in Beijing on October 14, 2026. Zhao Weidong, Secretary-General of the Global Alliance for Trade in Services (GATIS), attended the conference and delivered remarks.

In his remarks, Zhao Weidong noted that trade in services has become a key driver of global trade growth. Emerging sectors such as digitally deliverable services and green services are developing rapidly, ushering trade in services into a new phase of digital and intelligent transformation. At the same time, significant differences in trade-in-services rules across countries and limited mutual recognition of standards remain major barriers to the cross-border flow of services. These disparities increase the costs of cross-border operations for businesses and constrain the coordinated development of global trade in services. Zhao said that GATIS has made “promoting the formulation of rules and standards for trade in services” a key priority. The Alliance is accelerating preparations to establish its Standardization Committee. He welcomed businesses, institutions, and experts from all sectors to participate in GATIS’s standards development efforts. He put forward four proposals: first, uphold multilateral consensus, respect differences in national development levels, and promote the compatibility and mutual recognition of standards; second, align standards development with industrial development, and accelerate the development of standards for emerging fields as trade in services enters a new era of digital and intelligent transformation; third, promote collaborative participation, bringing together the strengths of government agencies, international organizations, industry associations, universities, and market players to enhance the effective implementation of standards; fourth, jointly build capacity for standards implementation, address capacity gaps in developing economies, and promote inclusive and shared benefits from trade in services.

At the conference, the Secretariat of GATIS and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Commercial Sub-council jointly released the Cases on Standardization of Trade in Services in China. A total of 25 case studies were collected during the initial call for submissions, of which 14 were ultimately selected, including China’s Solution to Global E-commerce After-Sales Challenges. The selected cases showcase the progress made and innovative practices developed in the standardization of key areas of China’s trade in services. They demonstrate the pivotal role of standards in facilitating cross-border trade in services, improving the quality and efficiency of service provision, and enabling industrial transformation and upgrading. They also highlight the tangible results China has achieved in leveraging standardization to drive the high-quality development of trade in services and advance high-level opening up.