GENEVA, April 2 (Reuters) – A group of states has agreed not to impose e-commerce customs duties among themselves after World Trade Organization members failed to agree on an extension to a long-running moratorium, a document showed on Thursday.
Days of talks among trade ministers in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde broke up on Monday with Brazil and Turkey blocking a bid to extend the WTO’s e-commerce moratorium in place for 28 years.
The 23 countries which signed the agreement included the United States, Britain, Japan and Mexico. The WTO has 166 members and requires consensus for global negotiations to be concluded.
The topic is set to be raised again by the broader membership at a meeting in Geneva in early May. It is not immediately clear whether any countries have already brought in new duties which could apply to digital downloads and streaming.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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