WTO Cases • Volume 12 • Number 20 • 4th June 2008

US and Japan File WTO Complaint over EU Tech Tariffs


The US and Japan filed a joint complaint at the WTO on 28 May against EU tariffs on certain high-tech products, claiming that the EU unfairly imposes import duties on a handful of goods that should be tariff free.

The official complaint centres on three products: cable or satellite boxes with internet capability; flat panel displays for computers; and computer printers that also have the capacity to scan, copy or fax.

Washington and Tokyo claim that these products should be duty free under the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which prohibits tariffs on high-tech products among the agreement’s signatories.

But Brussels maintains that the ITA does not apply when technology changes have given a product multiple functions. For example, from the EU perspective, cable boxes with internet capability should properly be classified as video recorders because they can record live television, and thus should fall outside the scope of the ITA.

According to a statement by the European Commission “both the spirit and explicit provisions in the ITA make it clear that extension to new products to reflect technological change would not be automatic, but based on periodic review by signatories.”

Indeed, Brussels has on several occasions called for a renegotiation of the ITA, but the US has objected, arguing that technological developments of the products covered by the agreement were foreseeable and that new products should therefore be automatically included under its rules.

Global exports of the products targeted in the complaint amounted to an estimated US$70 billion in 2007. US Trade Representative Susan Schwab has said that EU duties reach 14 percent on some items.

Under WTO rules, the countries involved will now engage in consultations for 60 days. If no resolution has been reached at the end of that period, the US and Japan can ask a WTO panel to determine whether the EU is meeting its trade obligations.

ICTSD reporting; “EU-US trade row erupts over IT products,” EURACTIV, 30 May 2008; “U.S. files WTO case vs EU over tech tariffs,” REUTERS, 28 May 2008; “Remarks by Ambassador Susan Schwab United States Trade Representative,” 28 May, 2008; “EU rejects claims over technology tariffs,” EUROPEAN COMMISSION TRADE ISSUES, 28 May, 2008.