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RI to defend skeptical stance on digital goods tax moratorium at WTO
Indonesia is calling for clarification of the WTO's CDET moratorium and is prepared to challenge the related 1998 declaration at next month’s MC13, although the reason behind the government's stance is not clear.
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A pedestrian traffic light turns red on Dec. 10, 2019 before the entrance to the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva. (AFP/ Fabrice COFFRINI)
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head of next month’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Indonesia has demanded clarification over a decades-old moratorium on e-commerce that prevents it from imposing customs duties on electronic goods.
The moratorium, to which WTO member states agreed in the 1998 Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce, is lined up for reaffirmation at the MC13 from Feb. 26 to 29 in Abu Dhabi. The moratorium expires on March 31 if WTO members do not unanimously agree on its renewal.
Some countries have proposed a permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions (CDET), which would effectively ban countries from levying on any import duties on digital products, such as software. But Jakarta has been swimming against the current since 2017 as it looks to terminate the agreement.
“Indonesia contends that the import duties moratorium applies only to the electronic transmission and does not include the content or goods and services that are electronically transmitted,” Djatmiko Bris Witjaksono, director general of international trade negotiations at the Trade Ministry, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The government has appointed Djatmiko to handle the CDET moratorium talks at next month’s MC13.
Djatmiko also told the Post that Indonesia, along with India, South Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, had proposed that the WTO clarify the definition, scope and impact of the moratorium before members decide whether or not to keep it in place.
“To date, there is no clarity on those [aspects] of the moratorium,” he explained, and that the issue had revealed different views among WTO member states.
