India to push for ending moratorium on customs duties on digital goods in WTO meet

The WTO's 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) will take place from February 26-29 in Abu Dhabi

India will push to end a moratorium on customs duties on goods on e-commerce trade at the World Trade Organization's (WTO) 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi later this month since such a leeway tends to benefit few developed nations, a government official from the Indian side said.

This is a continuation of India's earlier position that a country should be free to levy duties given that developing countries are losing out around $10 million in revenues due to the moratorium on customs duties on digital goods.

MC13 will take place from February 26-29 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with ministers from across the world in attendance. They will review the functioning of the multilateral trading system and take action on the future work of the WTO. The conference will be chaired by HE Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Trade.

WTO members had agreed to not impose customs duties on electronic transmissions until MC13.

"India needs to levy customs duty to protect its nascent digital industry, and since the difference between digital goods and digital services isn't well-defined, we are not in support of extending the moratorium further," the official said.

"There is no consensus on the scope of the moratorium. Customs duties as a concept is always related to goods and not services. According to some countries, the duties are applicable to services as well. The proponents of the proposal need to explain what the moratorium covers," a second government official said.

Since 1998, WTO members have periodically agreed to extend the moratorium on the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions. The last extension was agreed in June 2022 at the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12).

In addition to extending the moratorium until MC13, WTO members at MC12 agreed to intensify discussions on the scope, definition and impact of the moratorium.