Trading powers and developing nations clinched a deal on Wednesday to keep software and goods delivered on the Internet duty free for at least a year.
Ministers from the 132 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreed to continue their current practice of keeping cyberspace a duty-free zone for at least a year despite dissent from emerging country ranks.
The deal, which came after much haggling between Washington and several emerging market economies led by Pakistan, who are unhappy about the concept, is a partial success for the United States, which had pushed for a permanent e-commerce tariff ban.
It bars governments for the next year from trying to collect tariffs on items traded via the Internet but does not cover shopping for hard goods products ordered from a Website but delivered by normal means across physical borders.
A declaration approved by the ministers said work would start soon in Geneva on the whole area of electronic commerce, and suggested that when they next meet in the US next year they would consider extending it.
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