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WTO Talks End With No Deal to Extend E-Commerce Tariff Ban
Ban Has Been Approved Every 2 Years Since 1998
The World Trade Organization failed to extend a 28-year-old ban on e-commerce tariffs at its 14th ministerial conference, a major setback for an organization whose mission is already under threat from U.S. efforts to impose tariffs on its major trading partners.
After four days of talks in Cameroon’s capital of Yaoundé, Cameroon’s Minister of Trade Luc-Magloire Mbarga Atangana, who served as the chair of MC14, said “we ran out of time” on issues including the moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions.
The stalemate stemmed from an inability to bridge differences in the length of an extension between the U.S. and Brazil, as well as last-minute demands from Turkey that Washington and others found unacceptable, a person familiar with the talks said.
The prohibition shielding online trade from tariffs has been renewed every two years without lapsing since its inception in 1998, when digital commerce was just emerging. Now it’s become more than half of global services exports.
Without a deal, the moratorium expires at the end of this month, which would be another blow to an organization long criticized as an ineffective forum for dealmaking because one of its 166 members can veto any measure.
'Low-Hanging Fruit’
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last week called an extension of the moratorium “the lowest of the low-hanging fruit.”
Fresh from TMC, ATA President Chris Spear takes a candid look at what today’s fleet maintenance trends reveal about the broader state of trucking.Tune in above or by going to .
After talks went past midnight local time and into March 30, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said some of the unfinished business could continue to be considered at WTO headquarters in Geneva.
“I am hearing from several of you that it would be regrettable to lose so much effort and work, with the finish line in our sights, and that you still think we can get the job done,” she said.
John Denton, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce, said the meeting’s lack of a deal on e-commerce tariffs “risks generating yet more policy uncertainty at exactly the wrong moment from a real-economy perspective.”
“There must now be a determined effort to resume talks in Geneva without delay,” Denton said. “Restoring the WTO’s e-commerce moratorium must be an immediate priority. Exposing one of the few motors of global growth — digital services — to the threat of tariff barriers makes no sense in an already fragile economic environment.”
