WTO Extends Moratorium On E-commerce Tariffs For 2 Years

The discussions concluded well past midnight after an extensive 16-hour session on Friday

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has opted to prolong the moratorium on e-commerce tariffs for an additional two years following extensive negotiations in Abu Dhabi. However, efforts to reach agreements on other contentious trade matters, notably the reduction of subsidies in agriculture and fisheries, were unsuccessful, according to a Bloomberg report.

During the concluding session, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala hailed the WTO as a bastion of resilience amidst global geopolitical upheavals. She urged negotiators to persist in addressing outstanding matters on the agenda. The 13th biennial ministerial of the Geneva-based institution is also facing additional hurdles, with numerous elections scheduled this year in major economies. Incumbent politicians from Brussels to New Delhi are under pressure from various groups, including farmers, truckers, and other workers, demanding relief from inflation and foreign competition.

“I said trying to get achievements gains these headwinds would be tough,” Okonjo-Iweala stated during a press briefing at the start of the week. “We didn’t achieve all we wanted to, but what we did achieve, I think, was pretty amazing,” she added, as per the report.

The discussions concluded well past midnight after an extensive 16-hour session on Friday. The eleventh-hour agreement to extend the e-commerce moratorium until 2026 emerged as the most significant breakthrough. It caught some observers off guard, particularly after European Union officials had indicated just minutes before the announcement of a draft agreement that the week-long negotiations were on the verge of complete collapse, states the report.

However, the inability to make headway on agriculture and fisheries issues may reignite criticism that the WTO, which has only managed to secure two major multilateral agreements in its nearly 30-year history, is incapable of fostering the necessary consensus among its 166 members. This criticism comes at a time when the global economy is becoming increasingly fragmented into competing blocs, and conflicts in regions like Ukraine and Gaza are disrupting international trade.

“It’s clear that it is often difficult to reach consensus. Despite that, we were very close, and there’s a willingness and determination of a vast majority of membership to continue negotiations until it gets over the line,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission’s vice president for trade, reveals the Bloomberg report.

Initially opposed to renewing the e-commerce moratorium, India, Indonesia, and South Africa eventually supported it. These nations share concerns about the potential loss of control over data flows and the market dominance of major US technology companies.