The organisation (the WTO) has “finalised” its deal to cut tariffs on a range of IT products, including printer cartridges, to “zero”.
The BBC reported on the finalisation of the deal between the members of the WTO, which will see around $1 trillion (€923 billion) in world trade “unlock[ed]”.The Recycler reported earlier this month that a “breakthrough” had been made in talks at the European Union Embassy in Geneva between WTO ambassadors, and the deal has now been confirmed.
The organisation’s Information Technology Agreement has agreed to “eliminate tariffs on an array of technology products”, with the products concerned including “semiconductors, MRI machines, GPS devices, printer cartridges [and] video game consoles”. Final details are set to be ironed out at the next meeting in December, but the BBC noted that the deal “updates the 18-year-old IT agreement” and “adds 200 products to the zero tariff list”.
The news site also surmised that the deal “is expected to give a boost to producers of goods ranging from video games to medical equipment”, while the WTO says the money saved “is equal to global trade in iron, steel, textiles and clothing combined”. The 1996 IT deal had been seen as “woefully out-of-date as it did not cover devices and products invented since then”, with manufacturers such as General Electric, Intel, Texas Instruments, Microsoft and Nintendo “expected to benefit”.
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The removal of the tariff “could pave the way for a finalised deal that would contribute as much” as $190 billion (€175 billion) to the US’ gross domestic product (GDP) alone, as well as support around 60,000 jobs in the US. The 80 nations that form the WTO’s talks on IT account for around 97 percent of global trade in IT products as well, with “any duty-free terms […] applied to all WTO members” when a decision is made on import tariffs.
The process will see negotiators start talks in September on “schedules of concessions”, known as “staging”, which allows nations to “gradually phase in the tariff reductions for certain products deemed too sensitive”. This will then be followed by “technical negotiations” before the WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi from 15 to 18 December, with “the goal of completing the agreement” set for this event.
The news follows a previous WTO ITA agreement between China and the USA last November, which saw the two nations agree to eliminate technology tariffs at the APEC Summit in Beijing.