There is a sharp divide in the ongoing ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Cameroon over the e-commerce moratorium on customs duties, think tank GTRI said on Saturday.
It said that while the US is pushing for a permanent extension of the moratorium, India and other developing countries oppose it, citing revenue loss and policy constraints. “The sharpest divide is there over the e-commerce moratorium on customs duties. A temporary compromise of 2-4 years appears the most likely outcome,” the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said.
The third day of the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference at Yaounde, Cameroon, is emerging as pivotal, with ministers meeting across four tracks -- fisheries subsidies, investment facilitation, e-commerce and agriculture.
On the China-led Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) pact, pressure on New Delhi is expected to intensify in small-group “green room” meetings, GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said.
“India's concern is less about the pact itself than the precedent it sets, opening the door to plurilateral deals that once embedded within the WTO, act as Trojan horses'gradually reshaping the institution's multilateral character,” he said. He added that little progress is expected on fisheries subsidies, where divisions persist.
“With tensions spanning digital trade, IFD and plurilateral agreements, today's discussions are set to determine whether MC14 ends in a modest compromise or exposes deeper fractures within the WTO,” he said.
Also read: Import tariff overhaul will lower trade costs: GTRI
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