Finance, Ways and Means Leadership Push ITA Expansion, WTO Trade Facilitation
Information Technology Agreement (ITA) participant nations, notably China, must concede more sensitive ITA products and product lines, along with shorter tariff phase-out periods, in order to secure an ITA expansion deal by the next World Trade Organization summit in Bali, said leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees in a Nov. 13 letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Michael Froman. An ITA expansion deal would fuel increased U.S. exports of IT products, said the letter. “Any final agreement should also include important products that are priorities of U.S. information technology exporters, such as next-generation semiconductors, high tech instruments and medical devices,” said the letter. The Bali summit will be held from Dec. 3-6. The USTR and U.S. industry have led the ITA expansion effort (see 13100908).
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Senate Finance leaders Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, along with House Ways and Means leaders Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Sander Levin, D-Mich., expressed opposition to agricultural modifications in a Bali package, but endorsed trade facilitation efforts supported by USTR. “The [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] estimates that such an agreement could reduce trade costs by 10% in advanced economies and up to 45.5% percent in developing countries, which would translated into hundreds of billions of dollars in global savings,” said the letter. Failure to strike a Bali package will cause disproportionate harm to developing countries, said Froman in October (see 13100201).