Business, Freight News, Logistics

WTO’s ITA to Phase out Tariffs

[ December 22, 2015   //   Gary G Burrows ]

Participants in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) have finalized a deal that will phase out tariffs on 90% of global technology exports.
Expanding the ITA will particularly benefit exporters from states such as Washington, which is home to a large number of IT, medical device, and high tech manufacturing companies.
The current 1996 ITA has been in need of updates to reflect the flood of technological changes and advancements over the past 20 years. The updated ITA addresses these gaps in the current agreement.
The ITA is set to eliminate tariffs on $1.3 trillion worth of high tech products, such as software, medical devices, GPS devices and many more traded between 53 countries. The deal, which is the first major tariff-elimination deal at the WTO in 18 years, could boost annual global GDP by an astounding $190 billion and eliminate tariffs on $180 billion of U.S. technology exports.

Tags: World Trade Organization