Literature review on studies analysing the customs revenue implications of the WTO moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions

The first attempt to estimate the foregone customs revenue of the WTO moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions was undertaken by Schuknecht and Pérez-Esteve (1999). They used a list of goods that included cinematographic film, newspapers and videogames to provide upper bound estimates of possible tariff revenue losses, based on the assumption that all trade that could be digitized would be digitized. The analysis suggests that the potential foregone revenue effects would amount to less than 1 per cent of total tariff revenue across most economies. The paper also highlighted the strong potential for electronic transmissions to enhance services trade, underscoring that tariff revenue losses would need to be weighed against gains arising from growing trade in services (see also Mattoo and Schuknecht (2000) and Mattoo, Pérez-Esteve and Schuknecht (2001).