The decadesold global consensus that’s allowed e-commerce and a growing tidal wave of data to cross borders without tolls is at risk of falling apart.
Every couple of years since 1998, ministers at the World Trade Organization (WTO) have renewed a moratorium on digital customs charges. It’s kept online transactions — a Netflix movie streamed in South Africa, an international Zoom call with a doctor in India, an e-book downloaded on a beach in Bali — free of tariffs throughout the internet age.
Maybe not for much longer. The WTO meets in Abu Dhabi next week with the latest moratorium set to expire in March. At least three large developing economies are signaling they’ll oppose another extension. Because the WTO operates on consensus, all it takes is one to kill it.