1st Ld-Writethru: China's legislature passes IT tariff bill

China's legislature on Saturday passed a bill to ratify an amendment to a tariff concession schedule of the World Trade Organization (WTO) access protocol.

Under the amendment, China will eliminate customs duties on 201 IT products covered by the WTO Declaration on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products.

They include information communication products, semiconductors, and medical equipment.

According to the Ministry of Finance (MOF), tariff elimination on most of the products will be concluded within five years.

"The ratification and implementation of the amendment will be in the interest of China's drive to build an open economic system and to accelerate development of domestic IT industry amid international competition and cooperation," said the NPC Foreign Affairs Committee in a review report to the lawmakers.

China and other 21 WTO members agreed on the declaration issued by the WTO General Council on July 28, 2015.

On December 16, 2015, 24 WTO Members including China issued a Ministerial Declaration in which ministers endorsed the Declaration of July 28, 2015.

Global trade of products covered in the two declarations is valued at 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars, around 10 percent of total world trade, according to Lou Jiwei, head of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council. China's foreign trade volume of the goods is about a quarter the amount.

"Based on 2014 figures, eliminating these duties will cost China 15 billion yuan (about 2.24 billion U.S. dollars) and 52 billion yuan in annual actual and potential tariff revenue losses respectively," Lou said.

However, it will be an opportunity for Chinese enterprises, if they succeed in harnessing free global trade, Lou added.

According to Lou, the Special Administrative Region governments of Hong Kong and Macao, which are also members of the WTO, have the right to decide on their own tariff concessions. Endit