Expanded technology tariff deal may complete in early 2015

Hopes have been raised that a deal expanding the range of tariff-free information and communications technology products may be completed in the first quarter of next year, with trade negotiators expected to engage in informal talks from the middle of next month.

The latest round of talks in Geneva for a broader Information Technology Agreement, a plurilateral tariff-cutting pact launched in 1997, foundered on December 12 because of a stand-off between China and South Korea over flat-panel displays.

"World Trade Organisation director general Roberto Azevedo has been asked by WTO ambassadors to hold informal consultations with participants in the expansion talks [for the agreement], after the WTO returns from its holiday break," said Stephen Ezell, a senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a US think tank.

Ezell said it was hoped that a deal for expansion of the pact could be reached soon after the World Economic Forum annual meeting, which is slated for January 21 to 24 in Davos, Switzerland.

Sources said no negotiating rounds for the agreement had been scheduled this month because all technical work on the scope of products was done and the outstanding issues were political in nature.

Tariffs on more than 200 product lines will be reduced to zero under a broader pact. That would boost annual global gross domestic product by US$190 billion, according to industry estimates.