A preliminary agreement reached to ban tariffs on e-commerce globally

About half of the World Trade Organization’s members have reached a preliminary agreement on e-commerce that would permanently ban tariffs on cross-border digital transactions, which are growing at twice the rate of physical merchandise.

The United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and major European Union economies are among the 91 countries participating in the deal, although Washington has signaled hesitation over full support.

South Africa and India, two countries that have in the past raised concerns about rules designed to benefit rich countries at the expense of poorer ones, were absent from the list.

Participants may face difficulty turning their agreement into a formal WTO deal because that requires consensus among all WTO countries. India and South Africa have been particularly critical of agreements that do not include all members.