Washington in duty-free move The US is seeking to extend the duty-free status of international online transactions to protect the development of global electronic commerce, the Clinton administration said yesterday. Susan Esserman, deputy US traderepresentative, said the US wanted the World Trade Organization to agree "atthe earliest possible date" to extend the current moratorium on customs dutiesfor electronic trade.In testimony to the Senate foreign relations sub-committee on Europe, MsEsserman said duty-free cyberspace was particularly valuable to US softwarecompanies that were seeking to distribute their products electronically.The US is also looking for WTO members to affirm that electronic commerce issubject to existing rules and agreements, and should not face "unnecessaryregulatory barriers to trade". However Ms Esserman said "more time and workare necessary" before electronic goods could be subject to finalclassification under WTO rules.Electronic commerce in the US is forecast to grow to $1,300bn by 2003, whilein India it is expected to grow by $15bn within two years. Richard Wolffe,WashingtonProtectionism, it seems, is always with us and it is useful to examine theintermittent attempts made to establish rules for its containment. This bookis one such examination, on the conception, birth, and early years of theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); it is restricted to the years1940--53. It is the work of an historian but one at the political, rather thaneconomic, end of the spectrum. The heavy emphasis throughout is on theAmerican role within an essentially Anglo-American tussle. The argument isthat although trade was a relatively small proportion of US output it was usedfor political and diplomatic purposes. The general thrust is that the US waskeen on a new liberal order and determined to break the British empire'spreferential trading arrangements. However, when we read that the centralargument is that, 'by liber...
