About E-commerce Moratorium:
- It is a global agreement among World Trade Organization members.
- It bans customs duties being applied to electronic transmissions such as digital downloads and streaming.
- It was first adopted in 1998 at the WTO’s Second Ministerial Conference in Geneva as part of a declaration to encourage early digital trade growth.
- It covers cross-border transmissions such as software downloads, e-books, music and movie streaming and video games.
- It was originally intended to be temporary, the tariff moratorium has been renewed roughly every two years at each WTO ministerial conference.
- It was most recently extended for two years at the 13th conference in 2024.
- It is set to expire this month at the 14th WTO ministerial conference in Yaounde, Cameroon
- India argues that:
- It may lead to significant revenue loss.
- It restricts policy space in the digital economy.
- Developing countries lack the technological capacity to benefit equally.
