IT tariffs slashed in biggest WTO deal since 1996

More than 50 members of the World Trade Organisation concluded the biggest tariff-reduction deal in almost two decades, eliminating restrictions on the $1.3 trillion trade of 201 information technology (IT) products. The expansion of the 1996 Information Technology Agreement will increase global gross domestic product by $190 billion a year, according to IT experts, as the costs are cut in trading goods from GPS devices and video game consoles to next-generation semiconductors.

Trade ministers said it would also help reinvigorate the WTO, which is deeply divided over its failure to break the years-long deadlock in negotiations over the 2001 Doha Development Agenda. Although some important classes of products are not included, among them LED displays and lithium ion batteries, experts hailed the deal as a big breakthrough for multilateral trade negotiations.