Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/278514 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
Research Paper No. 177
Publisher: 
South Centre, Geneva
Abstract: 
This paper examines the policy dilemmas facing developing countries in ASEAN in working within, and participating in, international negotiations toward making permanent the WTO tariff moratorium on duties applicable to electronically transmitted goods. In the context of ASEAN's countries' trade-oriented development strategies, the analysis considers the moratorium's impact on tariff revenues, economic performance, and industrial development prospects. The paper presents estimates of tariff impacts and studies the national policy implications of the moratorium. An extension of the moratorium would establish a special regime for a class of goods whose components are contentiously defined but with a potential of being an important source of tariff revenue and of having an impact on industrial development in the future for developing ASEAN countries. This special regime for electronically transmitted goods cannot be justified as a global public good and is unnecessary. The removal of the regime would restore national space in developing ASEAN countries and allow them to obtain tariff revenues from the trade of these goods and to upgrade domestic capabilities in participating in the digital economy.
Subjects: 
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Digital Economy
Digital Trade
E-commerce
Electronically Transmitted Goods
Industrial Development
Moratorium
Tariffs
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Document Type: 
Research Report
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