WTO Talks End With No Deal to Extend E-Commerce Tariff Ban (2)

The World Trade Organization failed to extend a 28-year-old ban on e-commerce tariffs at its 14th ministerial conference, a major setback for an organization whose mission is already under threat from US efforts to impose tariffs on its major trading partners.

After four days of talks in Cameroon’s capital of Yaoundé, Cameroon’s Minister of Trade Luc-Magloire Mbarga Atangana, who served as the chair of MC14, said “we ran out of time” on issues including the moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions.

The stalemate stemmed from an inability to bridge differences in the length of an extension between the US ...