ITA Expansion by 250 Additions in Final Bali Push, China Holds Out on 60

Talks to finalise a list of products to add to the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA) have now been extended through the end of this week, in the hopes of giving participants more time to clinch a deal ahead of next month’s ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia.

“Final” ITA expansion round extended through week’s end

The Information Technology Agreement is a plurilateral pact under the aegis of the WTO, and fully eliminates tariffs on a list of information and communication technology (ICT) products. Though the agreement’s commitments bind only those members that have signed onto it - a list that numbers 50 - its benefits are extended to the full WTO membership.

There are now 25 of the ITA’s 50 signatories negotiating the expansion. Getting the remaining ITA participants to sign onto the final list will likely be a process for after the ministerial, sources say.

The latest round of ITA expansion negotiations - which is meant to be the final one - was slated to end on 20 November. However, sources involved in the negotiations confirmed that additional time is now needed in order to resolve outstanding differences with China - the world’s largest top exporter of ICT goods - over its list of product “sensitivities.”

The ITA expansion talks had been suspended in July due to an earlier standoff with Beijing on the subject, resuming in late October. At the time, the length of the list of products that Beijing wanted excluded from the pact’s coverage was deemed untenable by some members, such as the US.

According to a blog post by Information Technology Industry Council CEO John Neuffer, the list that Beijing released during this week’s negotiations still marks approximately 140 product lines - out of the 250 being considered for the expansion - as “sensitive,” with Beijing asking that over 60 products be removed entirely from consideration and that the others have long tariff phase-out times.