WTO电子商务零关税政策的法律分析

On Legal Issues of the WTO Duty-free Moratorium on Electronic Commerce

1998年WTO《全球电子商务宣言》宣布对电子传输不予征收关税,时至今天,这一政策仍在断断续续的延续,但在效力上存在很大的不确定性。美国一直是WTO框架下电子商务零关税政策的积极推动者,欧盟和大多数发展中国家则对此抱有异议。未来这一问题的解决,首先需要处理的是电子商务的定性问题,如果将其归入到服务贸易的范畴,则问题的解决将相对容易。中国可根据自身电子商务的发展情况,对于电子商务零关税延期宣言的效力采取灵活的立场。

WTO Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce （adopted on 20 May 1998） announced that Members would continue their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions. Although the validity of this policy is Intermittent it still takes effect so far. But its validity has large uncertainty. U.S always positively drives the duty-free of electronic commerce, but European Union and most of the developing countries object this position. The resolution of this issue firstly depends on how to classify electronic commerce. If electronic commerce is qualified as service trade, the issue will be resolved more easily than others. As for WTO Duty-free Moratorium on Electronic Transmissions, China may take flexible positions according to its development extent of electronic commerce.