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By Philip Blenkinsop and Emma Farge
GENEVA, June 15 (Reuters) - The global technology industry is pressing the World Trade Organization to exempt data flows from cross-border tariffs, saying a failure to do so would undermine a global recovery already threatened by spiralling prices.
The WTO's 164 members presented their views on the topic on Wednesday as negotiations at the ministerial conference ran into overtime amid growing pessimism about deals.
Keisal Peters, trade minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, who is leading discussions, said at the conference that divergences remained. As time ran out, WTO members should consider meeting halfway, she added.
The WTO agreed in 1998 to a moratorium on e-commerce tariffs and repeatedly extended it at ministerial conferences, which the Geneva-based trade body normally holds every two years.
Now India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa were threatening to block an extension, trade sources close to WTO talks said. This raises the prospect that tariffs could be imposed on such data flows as music streaming and financial transactions.
"Is it fair that the cost of the moratorium is always completely born by the developing countries?" Indian Commerce Minister Shri Piyush Goyal said at the meeting. "This moratorium...needs to be reviewed." Pakistan said is was foregoing billions of dollars in revenues due to the ban.
Countries' opposition has prompted 108 tech company associations, including...
Read Full Story: https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/update-1-global-tech-on-edge-as-wto-weighs-e-commerce-tariffs
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