“Taiwan’s representative to the WTO will accept the list of the additional 201 IT items for tax exemption and express our willingness to join the expanded zero-tariff scheme during the WTO’s two-day General Council meeting, which starts on Monday [today]”, Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) said by telephone.
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“Eliminating tariff will have a huge impact on prices in other sectors where IT products are used as inputs, create jobs and help boost GDP growth the world over”, Azevedo said, after members agreed to implement the accord on Friday.
Indeed, the ITA has been celebrated as an example of the kind of trade agreement that is a win-win scenario for both industrialized and developing countries alike.
The is equal to global trade in iron, steel, textiles and clothing combined.
The biggest winners of the WTO’s decision will be Chinese smartphone firms and consumers, the South China Morning Post reported Sunday.
This step forward cleared the way for ministers from the participants to conclude their implementation plans in Nairobi in December 2015 when the WTO holds its 10th Ministerial Conference. “I think it is important that we need to ensure that protect our interests in service and technology even as these global trade agreements are reached”, he added.
The other was an agreement on simplifying trade procedures, the one concrete achievement of the negotiations called the Doha Round launched in 2001.
The extension of the ITA aimed at broadening the original Information Technology Agreement between Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which came into force in 1997.
This, the WTO claimed, should lead to tariffs being cut on some of the listed products by 2016, and all of them within the next three years. A total of 54 WTO members negotiated the expansion of the ITA.
The agreement also contains a commitment to work to tackle non-tariff barriers in the IT sector, and to keep the list of products covered under review to determine whether further expansion may be needed to reflect future technological developments. In May 2012 a number of participants started negotiations to expand ITA to new products.
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But there were considerable hurdles to striking a broader agreement, notably differences between the United States and China.
