PRESS/69
3March 1997
RUGGIERO CITES PROGRESS INTHE INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT
TheWTO Director-General, MrRenato Ruggiero, issued today thefollowing statement:
"Although wedonotyethaveanagreement ontheremoval oftariffs fortrade
inInformation Technology products, theresults ofthenegotiations overthe
weekend were certainly veryencouraging. Wenowhavecommitments from
countries representing more than90% oftheworld market inITproducts,
putting usoverthethreshold thatwassetforanagreement.
"Trade inITproducts isvalued atover$500 billion, comparable totrade in
agriculture.ButtheimportanceoftheInformationTechnologyAgreementcannot
bemeasured innumbers alone. Taken together withthehistoric accord on
telecommunications reached lastmonth, anITAholds thepotential tounlock
enormous gains indevelopment andgrowth which would benefit allcountries,
developed anddeveloping alike. Knowledge isthemostessential rawmaterial
oftheglobal economy andwiththeprogress wehavemade inthese negotiations
weareclearly laying thefoundation forthetrading system ofthe21stcentury."
Note toEditors:
TheMinisterial Declaration onTrade inInformation Technology Products (ITA) wassigned
on13December 1996 inSingapore by28governments attheconclusion ofthefirstWTO
Ministerial Conference. Itprovides fortheelimination ofcustoms duties andother charges
oninformation technology products through equal annual reductions beginning on1July1997
andconcluding on1January 2000. These tariff cutsaretobeimplemented byparticipants
onanm.f.n. basis (applicable toallWTO Members). Theimplementation oftheagreement
iscontingent onthesigning onofother participants thatwould result inraising theagreement 's
coverage toapproximately 90percentofworld trade inITproducts.
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TheITAprovides forthesubmission ofdraftschedules by1March 1997. Asofthat
date, 18schedules hadbeenreceived bytheWTO Secretariat from thefollowing: Canada,
Costa Rica, Estonia, European Communities, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Norway, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand andtheUnited
States. Thefollowing have indicated their participation andareexpected tosubmit their
schedules inthenextfewdays: Australia, NewZealand, Turkey andChinese Taipei. Israel
hasalsoindicated itsintention ofparticipating andofsubmitting aschedule thisweek.
These ITAprovides thatby1April 1997, theparticipants should review andapprove
theschedules onaconsensus basis, anddetermine formally ifthe90percentthreshold for
implementation hasbeenreached.
TheITAcoversfivemaincategoriesofproducts:computers(includingprinters,scanners,
monitors, hard-disk drives, power supplies, etc.), telecom products (including telephone sets,
faxmachines, modems, pagers, etc.), semiconductors (including chips andwafers),
semiconductormanufacturingequipment,software(e.g.diskettesandCD-ROMs)andscientific
instruments.
END