GENEVA (Reuters) – WTO members reached a provisional deal on Thursday to extend a moratorium on applying duties to e-commerce until the next ministerial meeting, likely to be in 2023, trade sources involved in the discussions told Reuters.
“We agree to maintain the current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions until MC13 which should ordinarily be held by 31 December 2023,” the agreement showed, referring to the next ministerial conference. It specified that the moratorium would expire in March 2024, should the next conference be postponed.
The provisional deal still needs to be backed by the WTO’s 164 members.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
