WTO talks stuck over e-commerce moratorium

NEW DELHI: WTO talks in Cameroon are deadlocked over a moratorium on e-commerce with the US seeking a long freeze on countries for levying tax on digital downloads and streaming, while India is so far unwilling to agree to this period.

Starting from two years, India has indicated its willingness to go up to four, with the WTO draft proposing a moratorium until June 2031, two persons familiar with the ministerial level talks told TOI.

But before ministers move to that the US and Brazil have to reach common ground on farm sector liberalisation. Talks between the US and Brazil are currently underway before ministers move to the issue of e-commerce. Here, the African countries have also demanded support and technical assistance before a final text can be agreed to.

For over 25 years, members of the WTO have upheld a rule — no customs duties on electronic transmissions. While India has used it as a bargaining chip at every ministerial meeting.

For India, the big win is managing to keep investment facilitation for development out of the WTO framework despite standing alone at the end. It has demanded “guardrails” against using plurilaterals, which are agreements between a select group of member nations. India has indicated its willingness to support discussions on reforms but it is the US which is stalling issues despite in the past signalling that WTO wasn’t moving anywhere.

Talks are expected to conclude in the next few hours as ministers have started leaving Cameroon and the ministerial meeting is not going into extra time.


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