THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Abstract

The article considers modern concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, its basic components, effects on production, business processes, value and supply chains. The author has specified five most important effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on international trade and global commerce: shifts in the structure and configuration of international trade, including flow of many operations with real goods and services into digital space and trade localization impulses on part of distributed manufacturing and decentralized value chains; enhancing global competition and its shift to non-material sphere; appearance of the new formats and opportunities for international business due to digitalization, more inclusive cross-border commerce and expansion of cloud employment; regulatory changes to deal with fast growing digital trade with participation of companies, entrepreneurs, households and actually beyond national jurisdictions, emergence of the new generation above the border disciplines related to regulation of commercial relations in virtual space; systemic effects of technological transformation on international trade, i. a. blurring of lines between crossborder and domestic operations in the globalized digital environment, erosion of the concept of foreign trade specialization traditionally determined by the availability of factors of production and necessary competences. Many of the expected changes will have radical character for existing view of international trade. Understanding of these changes is of vital importance for elaboration of the effective external positioning strategy for Russia.