Russia Signs On to ITA

Russia is now the 78th member of the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA), officials announced last Friday, a year after the country joined the global trade body.

The ITA is a plurilateral pact aimed at liberalising trade in information and communication technology products. As part of its accession protocol when it joined the WTO in August 2012, Moscow agreed that it would join the deal.

The news “marks an important step forward for Russia’s information technology sector,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said. Russia’s information technology exports amounted to US$0.99 billion in 2012, according to WTO data, with imports reaching US$20.21 billion that same year.

A subset of the ITA’s current members have spent much of the last year working toward expanding the coverage of the information technology pact, which entered into force in 1996. The pact, these members said, needs to be updated in order to reflect the new products and growth in trade within the sector since that time.

Whether Russia would join in the ITA expansion negotiations was unclear at the time of this writing. Members currently involved in the discussions, however, say that they hope that all ITA participants eventually agree to the expanded product list.

Though the WTO’s upcoming ministerial in Bali in December has been floated as a possible end date for ITA expansion talks, these were temporarily suspended in July due to differences between China and many of the WTO members involved, leaving the Bali goal in doubt.