Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 12 • Number 30 • 18th September 2008
EU Proposes Changes to WTO IT Agreement
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The EU on Monday proposed an expansion to the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA) that could affect an ongoing dispute against European tariffs on IT products.
“The ITA remains a milestone duty-free agreement,” EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said. “But it risks being left behind after 12 years of technological development. We need an ITA for the 21st century that will continue to benefit our consumers and businesses.”
The EU has proposed several updates to the ITA: increasing the number of products covered, recruiting new signatories, and establishing mechanisms to keep the agreement up to date.
The proposal comes three months after the US and Japan filed a complaint at the WTO claiming that Brussels unfairly imposes import duties on a handful of goods that should be tariff free under the ITA (see BRIDGES Weekly, 4 June 2008, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/12303/). Taiwan became another complainant in the dispute in June.
The dispute initially centred 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, Tokyo and Taipei claim that these products should be duty free, but Brussels maintains that the ITA does not apply when technology changes have given a product multiple functions.
Although the EU did not list the products that it hopes will be included under the expanded ITA, it did indicate that multifunctional products would be given priority.
International trade in the IT sector has more than doubled in the past 12 years; IT products now account for roughly 20 percent of world exports of manufactured goods.
The ITA, which has been in force for more than eleven years, is intended to expand trade in information technology and telecommunications products by reducing tariffs on those goods. The agreement has a total of 43 signatories, which represent more than 97 percent of global trade in IT products.
ICTSD reporting.
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