The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) ended on Monday with members failing to come to a consensus on several critical issues like e-commerce moratorium , import duties on digital trade, and China’s investment proposal, among others.
One of the biggest agenda for India was to address the long-standing moratorium on customs duties on e-commerce transmissions as it will be lapsed in March 2026. In 1998, WTO members agreed to not have customs duties on electronic transmissions for two years, a moratorium that has been extended since then.
Without it, countries can impose tariffs on digital trade. The US, supported by the EU and Japan, pushed for a long-term or permanent extension. Efforts to reach a compromise were ultimately blocked by Brazil, which linked progress on e-commerce to unresolved issues in agriculture negotiations.
Additionally, the safeguard against non-violation complaints under the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) also expired. Without it, developed countries can challenge WTO-compliant measures like compulsory licensing. For India, this increases the risk of disputes over its intellectual property rules, including provisions like evergreening, said a GTRI report.
Indian patent laws prevent evergreening by prohibiting the patenting of new forms of known substances unless they show significantly improved therapeutic efficacy.
“The lapse of the e-commerce moratorium and TRIPS safeguard signals a deeper institutional rift, with old compromises breaking down. The divide is now structural -- between those pushing coalition-driven rule-making and those defending consensus and policy space,” said Ajay Srivastava, Founder, GTRI India.
Meanwhile, India was the only country that opposed the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) agreement proposed by China, arguing that plurilateral deals risk undermining the WTO’s multilateral framework.
“India has maintained that IFD negotiations should have been launched by consensus. Members should not be including issues in the WTO without the entire membership of the organisation discussing the implications of doing so,” says Biswajit Dhar former head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
He added that cherry-picking issues for inclusion in the WTO by some members set an unacceptable precedent that could undermine the spirit of multilateralism in the long run.