Press Memo: Trump’s Bullying on Behalf of Big Tech Derails WTO Ministerial
YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON — Today, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) ended in chaos, with the carefully curated MC14 outcome that seemed all but assured failing to cross the finish line.
This outcome comes in spite of the U.S., EU, and other developed countries dominating the agenda to benefit their largest corporations, the Secretariat’s heavy-handed facilitator-dominated process, and the further sidelining of civil society participation. The Trump administration, unable to bully countries into securing a long enough tax holiday for Big Tech, has blocked agreement on other issues under discussion.
Ironically, the Trump administration’s intransigence on demanding a permanent moratorium for customs duties on e-transmissions, which has been consistently renewed every two years since 2001, means that the moratorium has now expired. In practice, this means that countries now have the policy space to apply import taxes on digital products and services, should they so choose. This not only provides developing countries with revenue which could be utilised for developmental activities, but also enables them to implement policies aimed at promoting the growth of local tech ecosystems.
The MC14 failure also has the benefit of foiling (for now) some of the harmful proposals on the table, like the “reform” package that was poised to dismantle the WTO’s last remaining shreds of multilateral, consensus-based decision-making. In particular, the precedent-setting agreement misleadingly called Investment Facilitation “for Development” failed to get enough support.
While this outcome avoids the worst case scenario, it still is not cause for celebration. Trump’s derailing of the Ministerial may spell the end of an important tool for countries to facilitate access to medicines, known as the moratorium on the TRIPS Non-Violation Complaints. And more broadly, it continues the WTO’s longstanding failure to address developing countries’ urgent proposals to stop WTO rules from restricting development space.
Public Citizen, on the ground in Cameroon as a member of the Our World Is Not For Sale network, saw this dysfunction first-hand. Global Trade Watch deputy director Melanie Foley issued the following statement:
“What I have witnessed this week is no way to set the rules governing global trade. For this ministerial to end in chaos thanks to a Donald Trump temper tantrum on behalf of Big Tech, just shows how broken this institution is. The U.S. delegation’s laser focus this week on the e-commerce moratorium fits right into the Trump administration’s “might makes right” approach to trade and efforts to stop other countries from regulating the U.S.-based Big Tech companies operating within their jurisdictions.
“Governments that stand up to Trump’s bullying on behalf of Big Tech CEOs, including those who stood up here in Yaoundé, should be applauded and encouraged to continue that resolve in Geneva and beyond. Countries should not feel beholden to support the extreme U.S. digital agenda because of the deals they signed under threat of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, especially since those tariffs have now been ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
For more, see the Our World is Not for Sale statement with civil society experts from around the world commenting on the full range of MC14 issues: owinfs.org/MC14-conclusion.