No movement on e-commerce moratorium deadlock: WTO talks facilitator

New Zealand's trade minister said on Thursday that there had not yet been any progress to overcome a deadlock on extending a moratorium on placing tariffs on electronic transmissions, which a handful of countries such as India still opposed.

"In as far as the moratorium is concerned that is a political decision for ministers and there has not been any movement on that," said Todd McClay, New Zealand trade minister, who is facilitating the WTO talks in Abu Dhabi set to end at midnight local time. "But we are still engaged, talking constructively and working together and I'm hopeful there can be a positive outcome."

He added that countries were however finding common ground on a separate future work programme for e-commerce.