Elimination of tariffs on IT products

Company information

The Information Technology Agreement (ITA) negotiated under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO), eliminated tariffs on more than 90 percent of world IT trade. Based on the success of the ITA, which now has 70 signatories representing about 97 percent of world trade in information technology products, global negotiations were launched to expand product coverage and address non-tariff barriers that impact IT trade. HP’s goal is to increase participants in the ITA, and China, Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain have added their support.  Efforts to expand IT product coverage have now shifted to industrial market access negotiations in the WTO Doha Round. Negotiations to remove tariffs on IT products are also ongoing in a number of bilateral and regional trade negotiations.

	HP's position

	•	HP supports the WTO's ITA Committee, which permits issues related to IT trade to be negotiated without reference to other sectors.  This status avoids the need for trade-offs with other sector products (e.g., agriculture) to achieve positive results.
	•	HP supports allowing the IT sector to maintain a unique status at the WTO to ensure that IT issues are not subsumed as a result of considerations affecting other sectors.
	•	HP supports zero tariffs on IT products and will work vigorously to reject the creation of non-tariff barriers, which often are introduced when IT tariffs are eliminated.

	Impact on HP

The successful elimination of duties on IT products through the WTO Doha Round and other free trade agreements would further reduce tariffs on HP's computer hardware and peripherals, products amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The ITA structure itself provides an avenue for HP to achieve the elimination of a non-tariff barrier to trade for computers and peripherals, for example, redundant testing and certification. Additionally, the ITA provides a convenient platform to challenge misclassifications of products by subscribing countries that can have substantial revenue implications for HP. Other agreements provide the opportunity to go beyond the commitments made in the ITA to secure more favorable access to foreign markets.