28 countries to liberalize trade on info-tech products

By Riyadi

SINGAPORE (JP): Twenty-eight member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed here yesterday on the United States' initiative to liberalize trade on information technology products.

Trade ministers from the 28 countries, including Indonesia, issued a separate ministerial declaration on trade in information technology products at the closing of the inaugural WTO ministerial conference.

The declaration mentioned in its annex that trade liberalization for information technology products should begin by July 1 next year, and should be completed by Jan. 1, 2000.

Indonesian Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo said Indonesia would seek more time to liberalize trade on about 25 percent of information technology products.

Acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said that considering the countries' different development levels, the liberalization deadline for products in some countries could be extended beyond the year 2000.

"But the exceptions from zero-percent tariffs by the year 2000 are explicitly limited," Barshefsky told a press conference.

The 28 countries in the information technology agreement (ITA) are 15 European Union countries, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

They account for 84 percent of international trade in information technology, which in 1995 exceeded US$595 billion.

European Union Commissioner for Trade Policy Leon Brittan stated the agreement was conditional on most trade in information technology products being covered.

If enough countries have signed the deal to cover about 90 percent of the trade by March 15, 1997, the deal will go ahead in its current form.

Brittan and Barshefsky were optimistic that more countries would join the ITA, and that by March 15 the 90 percent target would be achieved.

Barshefsky said three more countries had committed to signing it. With these three countries, the ITA would cover 94 percent of the volume of international trade in information technology products.

According to a Japanese official, the three countries include Malaysia, the Philippines and New Zealand.

The ITA covers capacitors, digital photocopiers (non-digital ones are excluded) and fiber-optic cables (optic fibers used to produce fiber-optic cables are excluded).

It also covers computer monitors (televisions are excluded), telecommunications equipment, graphic display tubes, computer software (except software carrying sound recordings), semi- conductors and other key electrical components.

The agreement will also help remove non-tariff barriers and prevent new ones.

Tariff cuts on information technology products will occur in four stages until Jan. 1, 2000. They will begin by July 1, 1997: But this is subject to agreed exceptions.

Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry Yeo Cheow Tong, who chaired the WTO conference, said tariff elimination for trade in information technology products would be done on a most-favored nation basis, meaning other non-signatory countries could benefit from the agreement's tariff cuts.