India wants to impose customs duties on digital exchange, but other WTO members want to extend the moratorium. All eyes are now on the WTO's February conference
India has proposed to get back to its stand of imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions. This comes in the run-up to the WTO's 13th Ministerial Conference, scheduled in three weeks in Abu Dhabi. Since 1998, World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries have agreed not to impose customs duties on e-transmissions (the trade of digital goods). It is the only WTO provision that applies explicitly to e-commerce and has been in place for 26 years. The 164 members have been temporarily extending the moratorium every few years during the WTO Ministerial Conference. The last extension took place in June 2022 at Geneva, and it is due to lapse at the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference.
Any data or information delivered electronically without a physical medium, such as software accessed online, cloud services, e-books, e-music, online videos, and games, is termed electronic transmission. The absolute definition, however, is still unclear, which is leading to uncertainty around it.