28 countries to liberalize trade on info-tech products
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.