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New Zealand welcomes WTO information technology agreement

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay welcomed an expanded international agreement on information technology trade at the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in Nairbobi Thursday.

The expanded Information Technology Agreement (ITA) would cover global trade worth about 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars a year.

"This agreement will remove tariffs from 201 products, including new-generation semi-conductors, GPS navigation systems, MRI machines, telecommunications satellites and touch screens," McClay said in a statement from his office.

"These are 21st century products that New Zealanders use in different ways every day."

The value of New Zealand's exports of the products covered about 1 billion NZ dollars (673.1 billion U.S. dollars) annually.

"It is also an important outcome for the WTO. It's the first major tariff-elimination deal at the WTO in the past 19 years. This announcement shows that the WTO can deliver relevant, real, and commercially meaningful results," said McClay.

Under the expanded ITA, member states would eliminate all tariffs on the products imported from all WTO members within seven years, with most tariffs eliminated in the next three years, beginning in July next year. Endit