| Signed | 13 December 1996 |
|---|---|
| Effective | 1 July 1997 |
| Depositary | World Trade Organization |
The Information Technology Agreement (ITA) is a plurilateral agreement enforced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and concluded in the Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products in 1996, and entered into force 1 July 1997. Since 1997, a formal Committee under the WTO watches over the following of the Declaration and its Implementations.[2] The agreement was expanded in 2015.[3]
The aim of the treaty is to lower all taxes and tariffs on information technology products by signatories to zero.[2]
According to a 2017 study in the World Trade Review, the 2015 ITA expansion is "the most successful attempt at trade liberalization under the auspices of the WTO since its inception in 1995."[3] The study credits the success of the negotiations to four factors: "a narrower scope without a single undertaking approach, a negotiating group that contained many but not all WTO members, a focus on tariffs rather than non-tariff barriers, and avoiding a nationalistic opposition."[3]
References
- ↑ INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: SCHEDULES OF CONCESSIONS
- 1 2 "Information Technology Agreement — introduction". World Trade Organization. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- 1 2 3 Winslett, Gary (2017). "Critical Mass Agreements: The Proven Template for Trade Liberalization in the WTO". World Trade Review. 17 (3): 405–426. doi:10.1017/S1474745617000295. ISSN 1474-7456. S2CID 157207161.
External links
- Information Technology Agreement, WTO.
- ITA Schedules of Concessions, WTO.
- "Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products" (PDF) (text of the declaration). Singapore: World Trade Organization. 13 December 1996. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- "Council for Trade in Goods – Implementation of the Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products" (WPF.ZIP or WPF.EXE). World Trade G/L/160 doc#97-1356; G/L/160/Add.1 doc#97-1935; G/L/160/Add.2 doc#97-3676 (text of the implementation with two "Note[s] by the Secretariat"). World Trade Organization. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
