Trade Associations Urge WTO to Renew Moratorium on Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions
Almost 90 trade associations, including the U.S. Council for International Business and the Semiconductor Industry Association, released a statement May 17 urging World Trade Organization members to renew the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions until the next ministerial conference. The trade associations said that continuing the moratorium is key to the COVID-19 recovery and to "supply chain resilience for manufacturing and services industries in the COVID-19 era." Lifting the moratorium would jeopardize all of these benefits since it would disrupt cross-border access to knowledge and digital tools, the statement said.
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"Allowing the Moratorium to expire would be a historic setback for the WTO, representing an unprecedented termination of a multilateral agreement in place nearly since the WTO’s inception -- an agreement that has allowed the digital economy to take root and grow," the statement said. "All WTO members have a stake in the organization’s continued institutional credibility and resilience, as well as its relevance at a time of unprecedented digital transformation."