Brussels, 24/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - A WTO agreement was expected at the end of Friday 24 July on the review of the 1997 WTO information technology agreement (ITA) so as to extend the list of ITA-covered goods to 200 new products.
The products covered by this extension include new generation semi-conductors, GPS navigation material and medical equipment (including magnetic resonance imaging equipment and ultrasound diagnosis apparatus). Annual trade of the 200 new products that would be covered by the ITA is estimated at $1 trillion.
Signature of the draft agreement negotiated between 54 WTO countries was expected to be announced on Friday - the goal being to sign the revised ITA at the 10th WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi in December. This would be the first agreement on tariff reduction sealed at the WTO in 18 years.
After the US and China moved closer together at the end of 2014, a new breakthrough in the revision of the ITA was announced in Geneva last weekend (see EUROPE 11363). (Emmanuel Hagry)