Countries Reach Agreement on Expanded ITA

In late July, over 50 World Trade Organization (WTO) members, including the United States and China, reached an agreement on an expanded Information Technology Agreement (ITA), featuring elimination of tariffs for 201 items, including recent innovations such as:

• Next generation semiconductors
• Global Positioning System (GPS) devices
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines
• Computed Tomography (CT) scanners
• Video game machines
• Ink box of printers

Zhang Jianping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission's Foreign Economic Research Center, told People's Daily that China will benefit from this expansion, given the Chinese ICT industry's global competitiveness. Zhang also noted that, due to its position at the low to middle end of the global ICT supply chain, China will face challenges under the new zero-tariff policy, which can be used as a driving force for industrial upgrading and creation.

According to the World Trade Organization, over $1 trillion in annual trade of information and communications technology products will be covered by the expanded ITA.