Brussels, 17/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On behalf of the EU, the Council of the EU approved, on Friday 17 June, the revised WTO agreement on information technology (IT) products that was concluded by 53 WTO member countries on the sidelines of the WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi on 16 December 2015.
This agreement revises the 1997 information technology agreement (ITA) and thus extends the list of goods covered to include 201 new products. Annual world trade in these products is valued at $1.3 trillion, accounting for around 10% of world trade (see EUROPE 11455).
The products covered by this extension include new-generation semi-conductors, GPS navigation systems, medical products (including magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonic scanning machines), machine tools for manufacturing printed circuits, telecommunications satellites and touch screens.
The revised agreement includes a commitment on staged reductions of customs duties on these products, with 90% of tariff lines being reduced to zero between 1 July 2016 and 1 July 2019. All duties on these products will be removed by 1 January 2024.
The European Parliament gave its green light on 8 June to the Council's formal conclusion of the revised ITA (see EUROPE 11568). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)