WTO members start eliminating technology tariffs

With the entering into force of the World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA) on July 1, member countries of the international trade body have started eliminating tariffs on hundreds of information technology goods.    With the entering into force of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) on July 1, member countries of the international trade body have started eliminating tariffs on hundreds of information technology goods.
   “Following the full implementation of ITA expansion, over $180 billion in annual American technology exports will no longer face burdensome tariffs in key markets around the globe,” said the White House’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in a statement.
   “In addition, duty-free trade in the products covered by ITA expansion will lower costs for downstream manufacturing and services industries that rely on information and communications technology parts and components as inputs, increasing their competitiveness,” USTR said.
   The WTO estimates that the ITA’s expansion will eliminate tariffs on about $1.3 trillion in annual global exports of information and communications technology products, which the industry estimates will increase annual global GDP by an estimated $190 billion.
   In December 2015, more than 50 developed and developing countries, including the United States, reached agreement at the 10th WTO Ministerial in Nairobi, Kenya, to take steps to implement their tariff-cutting commitments on the ITA expansion list of 201 products by July 1, 2016, subject to the completion of domestic procedural requirements.
   The original ITA concluded in 1996. Despite growth in global trade in technology products, which has increased to more than $4 trillion annually, ITA required updating. Negotiations to update the ITA began in 2012. Its expansion is considered the first significant tariff-cutting deal at the WTO in 19 years.