Talks on I.T. pact collapse as China refuses to budge
By failing to make concessions on products it wants protected, Beijing scuttles deal to remove tariffs for second time this year
China, for the second time this year, has thwarted negotiations to expand the scope of a global pact to remove tariffs on a wide range of information and communications technology products.
The talks were suspended late on Thursday after the Chinese delegation refused to make concessions on the number of products it wanted excluded from talks to expand the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), a tariff-cutting scheme established in 1996.
In a statement sent to the South China Morning Post on Friday morning, an official from the Office of the United States Trade Representative said: “As the information technology talks are suspended in Geneva, we share the broad disappointment of our ITA negotiating partners that China has chosen against progress in this key area of the global economy.”
The breakdown came a day after trade negotiators in Geneva agreed to extend the ITA discussions until today (Friday). There was no indication when the talks would resume.
“This obviously leaves the other negotiating teams with a decidedly sour taste in their mouths. Negotiators from all over the world were here and ready to close the deal this week,” John Neuffer, senior vice-president for global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, a US-based advocacy group, said in a blog post from Geneva.
[China's] have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too approach to trade is at the heart of this collapse in ITA expansion talks
China had been holding out for the exclusion of 57 different information and communications technology products from the scope of the ITA, which seeks to abolish import tariffs to stimulate trade.