On March 22, 2018, then-President Trump of the United States signed a presidential memorandum, which, based on the results of the “301 investigation”, would impose large-scale tariffs on goods imported from China and restrict Chinese companies from investing in and acquiring American companies. On July 10, 2018, the Trump administration once again issued a list of 10% import tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. For a long time, the United States has been China’s largest international trading partner, and ASEAN replaced the United States as China’s largest international trading partner in 2019. In extreme cases, political conflicts manifest as wars, such as the two world wars, which posed a huge threat to international trade. Therefore, cross-border e-commerce companies must pay attention to the international political environment.

In 2003, Cisco’s “century lawsuit” against Huawei, as a landmark event for Chinese companies to go global, has extraordinary enlightenment significance for my country’s growing companies, especially Chinese entrepreneurs preparing to conquer the global market. Cisco was the initiator of this lawsuit against Huawei and came prepared. At that time, Huawei had just opened up the overseas market. If it lost the lawsuit, not only would the large amount of money invested previously be wasted, but it would also be very difficult for it to enter the international market later. Therefore, it is even very likely that “Huawei will go bankrupt.” Huawei hired the American law firm Morrison & Foerster, which enjoys a high reputation in handling cross-border intellectual property lawsuits, to send all the source code involved in the dispute to the United States for third-party inspection and to establish a joint venture with Cisco’s rival 3Com. In the end, Huawei and Cisco reached an out-of-court settlement. This lawsuit not only allowed Huawei to demonstrate its technological advantages on the international stage, but also became a “textbook” case of making good use of American politics and law.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, BYD switched to the production of masks. Since BYD’s N95 masks failed to obtain U.S. federal certification before April 30, 2020, BYD had to return half of the deposit to California, which was US$247.5 million (approximately RMB 1.75 billion). BYD’s move to return the advance payment caused an uproar at home and abroad. Because BYD was carrying out multiple tasks in a short period of time and went all out to transform the workshop and production line, ignoring the paper work, the NIOSH certification of BYD N95 was delayed than the original time. In the end, BYD properly solved this problem. This incident reminds us that we should not only recognize the importance of the political and legal environment, but also pay attention to complying with the market rules of different countries. Cross-border e-commerce companies must pay attention to laws and regulations on business, intellectual property rights, etc. In addition, cross-border e-commerce platforms usually formulate complex rules, which are also required to be followed by cross-border e-commerce companies. For example, when opening a store on Alibaba International Station, it is necessary to refer to the prohibition and restriction rules and other rules to avoid violations of regulations and laws.