WTO members pass technology free trade update

The agreement would update an 18-year-old pact that nixes duties and tariffs on technology products, likely reducing costs for consumers, but the deal has not yet reached a quorum.    World Trade Organization members on Friday agreed on a landmark update to an 18-year-old agreement governing tariffs on technology products.
   The agreement, however, will not yet go into effect because a handful of WTO members have yet to ratify the deal, leaving it short of the required quorum.
   The update to the Information Technology Agreement would add 201 high-tech products to a list of goods free from duties and tariffs. The update is intended to reduce the price of such goods for consumers and as well as costs for high-tech machinery for manufacturers. The WTO estimates the benefits of freeing the list of 201 products from duties and tariffs could be $1.3 trillion in global trade.
   The deal has yet to be ratified by Colombia, Mauritius, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey, five of the 54 nations that negotiated the deal, and thus doesn’t meet a WTO threshold to put the agreement into force. Ratifying nations need to account for more than 90 percent of world trade for the specific products covered by the ITA. If that threshold is met, the ITA would cover all 161 WTO members.
   WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told international media outlets in Geneva that he was optimistic enough nations would join eventually. Technology goods account for 7 percent of global trade, he said, a larger proportion than automobiles.
   The free trade product list covered by the updated ITA includes new-generation semi-conductors, GPS navigation systems, medical products (including magnetic resonance imaging machines), printed circuits and satellites, Reuters reported.