China is again resisting calls to reduce tariffs on a wide range of IT products it imports, threatening efforts to update the 1996 international agreement governing trade in electronic goods.
Negotiators from more than 50 countries involved in 97 per cent of the global trade in IT products are seeking to update the Information Technology Agreement by removing tariffs on a swath of products not foreseen in the 1996 deal. They are hoping to unveil it at next month’s WTO ministerial meeting in Bali.
The ITA negotiations have also become a litmus test for China, which is the world’s biggest exporter of IT products, and how it engages in plurilateral trade negotiations.