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Roundup: Pivotal trade deal reached by WTO members on over 200 IT products

Xinhua, July 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

WTO members came to a consensus on Friday regarding the inclusion of some 200 additional Information Technology (IT) products to the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) which hadn't been updated since its inception in 1996.

"The list is closed and that is the major conclusion of today's work," WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo told the press, referring to the list of 201 new products on which tariff barriers will be eliminated.

"Eliminating tariffs on trade of this magnitude will have a huge impact. It will support lower prices, including in many other sectors that use IT products as inputs, it will create jobs and it will help to boost GDP growth around the world," said Azevedo.

This agreement builds on an initial accord reached by 54 WTO members on July 18, which will be used as a basis for implementation work to begin, while participating ministers have until December to finalise technical work ahead of the Nairobi Ministerial Conference at the end of the year.

WTO indicated that under the terms of agreement, the majority of tariffs on the products will be lifted within three years, with reductions starting as soon as 2016.

Valued at over 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars in annual trade, the electronics products covered by this expansion include new generation semi-conductors, GPS navigation and medical equipment, as well as machine tools for manufacturing printed circuits, telecommunications satellites and touch screens.

Though not all WTO members participated in negotiations, WTO indicated that all 161 member states will benefit from duty-free market access to those state markets committed to eliminating tariffs on the products.

Today's agreement is the fruit of negotiations which started in 2012 when countries realised that new categories of IT products were not covered by the existing agreement given the level of technical innovation which has taken place over the last 18 years.

WTO indicated that the terms of the agreement will be formally circulated to the full membership on July 28. Endit