With current estimations predicting that about half of the $2 to $5 trillion of e-commerce business anticipated in the next six years will be generated outside the United States, it essential that a common approach is taken on the complex question of internet taxation.

Hi-tech and telecommunications industry players such as Microsoft, AOL and AT&T have been lobbying hard for a tax free internet and have focused on convincing the WTO to permanently eliminate customs tariffs and not extend existing trade rules to cover e-commerce transactions. "It will be good for the world's consumers and international economic growth," a Microsoft spokesman said this week.

This view is shared by the Clinton administration, which has worked to overcome the major stumbling block in the WTO by convincing less-developed countries who are dependent on tariffs for revenue that imposing taxes on e-commerce would eventually also hurt their traditional trade revenue sources as e-commerce grows.

According to U.S. Under-Secretary of Commerce David Aaron WTO ministers generally agree "governments should not be over-regulating this brand-new commercial dimension". However given that the 135-nation WTO has only just mapped out the agenda for the next round of market-opening negotiations, it is unlikely that any formal agreement will be reached soon.