. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/IT/W/28 
TN/MA/W/107 15 September 2008 
 
(08-4265) 
Committee of Participants on the Expansion of Trade in 
Information Technology Products Negotiating Group on Market Access Original:   English 
 
  
REVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGR EEMENT (ITA) 
 
Communication from the European Communities
 
 
  In this communication, dated 15 September 2008,  the European Communities set out some 
initial views concerning possible negotiations for an update of the Information Technology 
Agreement. These concern in particular the elimina tion of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), the expansion of 
product coverage to take account of technological e volution and convergence, the failure to address 
effectively classification divergences, an d the expansion of its membership. 
 
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 One of the successes of the 1
st WTO Ministerial Conference held in Singapore in 
December 1996 was the Ministerial Declaration on trade in Information Technology Products, 
commonly described as Information Technology Agreement (ITA). The ITA includes forty-three participants
1, a considerable increase from the fourteen original signatories. 
 
 The success of the ITA is b est illustrated by one figure: from $ 600 billion in 1996, today IT 
products account for over $ 1500 billion world exports , i.e. one fifth of total world exports of 
manufactured products. This impressive incr ease has been accompanied by major shifts among 
principal traders, in particular in Asia where th e success of countries such as China and India is the 
best example of integration into the global economy  with beneficial effects on long term growth. The 
expansion of its membership should lead to a further growth of the global IT market and of trade in IT 
products. 
  Despite its success, even during the early years some elements of the ITA started to pose 
major challenges to all participan ts. The focus of such difficulties were product coverage issues, the 
absence of any progress in addressing non-tariff barrie rs (NTBs), which have remained a significant 
obstacle for trade in IT products, as well as the non- membership of important countries active in the 
trade in IT products.   The ITA intended to deal with issues creat ed by technological convergence, i.e., the 
increasing number of functions performed by some products possibly blurring the principal function 
of a product. However, in practice the mechanisms  under the ITA Agreement for the incorporation of 
new IT products since the ITA was negotiated
2 and the resolution of classification divergences have 
                                                      
1 ITA participants include 70 Members and States or separate customs territories. 
2 The ITA does not entail automatic product coverage  extension. Attachments A and B of the ITA deal 
with product coverage. Whilst in Attachment A products are referred to by tariff heading, in Attachment B 
products are referred to through descriptions. Followi ng the signing of the Agreement, Participants had to 
communicate the tariff lines implementing Att achment B commitments in their schedules. G/IT/W/28 
TN/MA/W/107 Page 2 
 
 
  not worked effectively. Some of the difficulties arose from the compromises achieved in 1996, under 
which certain IT products (such as optical  fibres) were excluded from its coverage. 
  In sum:  the ITA has been ve ry successful, but experience so far has shown that none of the 
mechanisms contained in the Agreement has really  helped it to keep pace with technological progress 
in products or to dismantle existing NTBs.   The European Communities proposes that ITA pa rticipants and other WTO Members initiate 
negotiations to: 
 
- eliminate all and prevent the creation of new non-tariff barriers affecting these products; 
- review the product coverage; - establish effective mechanisms to keep the agreem ent up to date and to ensure that in future it 
takes into account technological development and convergence; 
- include major producers of IT products still outside the ITA. 
 All these issues need to be addressed together in order to produce a balanced outcome where 
the different interests of Members are dealt with satisfactorily.   Rapidly evolving technologies make these negotiati ons particularly urgent in order to solve 
the problems faced in trade in th ese products. The European Commun ities therefore proposes to start 
negotiations immediately in order for results to be reached in the shortest possible period of time; it 
could also be included as an outcome of the DDA negotiations. Among the issues to be tackled, the 
European Communities proposes to give prio rity to some key topics, such as: 
 - on product coverage, negotiating the inclusion of products that present specific challenges for 
ITA Members, and in particular of multi-functional products; 
- on NTBs, agreement on substantive provisions concerning the recognition of internationally 
agreed standards and of methods of conformity assessment, in order to avoid multiple testing 
and enable greater economies of scale without compromising on product safety. 
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