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> Information Technology Agreement
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The other ITA participants are: Albania; Australia; Bahrain;
Bulgaria; Canada; China; Costa Rica; Croatia; Egypt; El Salvador; European
Communities; Georgia; Hong Kong, China; Honduras; Iceland; India; Indonesia;
Israel; Japan; Jordan; Korea; Kyrgyz Republic; Macao, China; Malaysia;
Mauritius; Moldova; Morocco; New Zealand; Nicaragua; Norway; Oman; Panama;
Philippines; Romania; Saudi Arabia; Chinese Taipei; Singapore; Switzerland
(on behalf of the customs union Switzerland and Liechtenstein).; Thailand;
Turkey; and the United States. The EC schedule comprises the commitments of
the 25 EC member states.
This WTO agreement is helping push the information technology revolution
forward. Beginning in 2000, most of the world trade in information
technology products (worth $1,134 billion in 2004 for office and telecom
equipment, a large part of which are IT products) became completely free of
tariffs under ITA. Participation in the ITA means that the country must
eliminate tariffs and all other duties and charges on covered IT imports
from all WTO members.
From the 29 participants that negotiated the ITA during WTO’s First
Ministerial Conference in Singapore in December 1996, membership has now
risen to 68 that account for more than 97% of world trade in IT products.
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