WTO members yesterday agreed to renew for six months a 20-year moratorium on placing tariffs on digital trade, allaying fears that people would have to pay duties on e-books and software for the first time.
The moratorium on digital trade worth an estimated US$225 billion a year has been in place since 1998, but was due to expire this month and required unanimity at the WTO for renewal.
“Members agree to maintain the current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions until the 12th Ministerial Conference,” the General Council’s decision said, referring to a WTO meeting in Kazakhstan in June.
The decision came after talks ran late into Monday evening, two trade officials said.
Several countries, including India and South Africa, have expressed interest in lifting the moratorium as they develop their digital economies and seek to recuperate lost customs revenue as more trade becomes digital, but some said that this could lead to tit-for-tat tariffs on the Internet.
International Chamber of Commerce secretary-general John Denton welcomed the decision, saying that it indicated “the continued value of the WTO as a forum for multilateral trade policy making” after members failed to resolve a crisis at its top court on Monday.
However, US disruption of the global economic order reached a major milestone yesterday as the WTO lost its ability to intervene in trade disputes, threatening the future of the Geneva-based body.
Two years after starting to block appointments, the US finally paralyzed the WTO’s Appellate Body, which acts as the supreme court for international trade, as two of three members exited and left it unable to issue rulings.
Major trade disputes, including the US conflict with China and metal tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, can no longer be resolved by the global arbiter.
Stephen Vaughn, who served as general counsel to the US Trade Representative during Trump’s first two years as president, said that many disputes would be settled by negotiations.
Critics have said that this means a return to a post-war period of inconsistent settlements, problems that the WTO’s creation in 1995 was designed to fix.
The EU ambassador to the WTO told counterparts in Geneva on Monday that the Appellate Body’s paralysis risked creating a system of economic relations based on power rather than rules.
The crippling of dispute settlement comes as the WTO also struggles in its other major role of opening markets.
The WTO club of 164 has not produced any international accord since abandoning “Doha Round” negotiations in 2015.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last