WTO Yaounde meet ends in failure

High-level WTO talks in Cameroon ended early on Monday with no significant agreements and a failure to extend a years-long ban on customs duties for ecommerce, after deep divisions blocked a deal.

As a consequence, the World Trade Organization moratorium that since 1998 has exempted cross-border digital transmissions from duties expired on Monday.

This does not mean tariffs will automatically be imposed, but it deals a heavy blow to developed countries and the United States in particular.

Trade ministers and other delegates meeting in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde also failed to meet even meagre expectations on deals towards much-needed reform of the WTO and on agriculture, among other issues.

“We worked hard,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala insisted as the WTO’s 14th ministerial conference wrapped up after schedule.

“We simply ran out of time.”

The disappointment was palpable following the talks, which took place against a backdrop of heightened trade tensions…