The World Trade Organization (WTO) announced on 24 July 2015 that an extension of the scope of the Information Technology Agreement has been agreed by 54 major exporters of these products. The scope of the agreement will be extended to cover new categories of these products that were not covered in the original agreement in 1996.
The advances in technology since the original agreement mean that latest IT products have not until now been covered. The agreement has now been extended to cover 201 more products. Trade in these products worldwide is worth more than USD 1.3 trillion each year.
Products now coming within the scope of the agreement include new generation semi-conductors; GPS navigation systems; magnetic resonance imaging machines and other medical IT products; telecommunications satellites; touch screens and machines tools for manufacturing printed circuits. Under the new agreement most of the tariffs on these products will be eliminated within three years, with the first reductions being made in 2016.
