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ARTICLE · 10 AUGUST 2016

Canada Implements Expanded WTO Agreement Eliminating Tariffs On Certain High Tech Products

McCarthy Tétrault
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In December 2015, over 50 WTO members, including Canada, gathered at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference, and agreed to the expansion of the ITA, a WTO agreement that aims to eliminate tariffs on IT products.

CanadaInternational Law
Linda El-Halabi
Linda El-Halabi
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In December 2015, over 50 WTO members, including Canada, gathered at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference, and agreed to the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), a WTO agreement that aims to eliminate tariffs on IT products. The ITA was originally concluded by 29 participants in 1996. It now has over 82 participants, representing around 97 per cent of world trade in IT products.

On July 1, 2016, the expanded ITA finally came into effect, eliminating tariffs on 201 tech and information-related products valued at over $1.3 trillion per year. An expansion of the agreement was necessary given recent technological innovations. The products affected by this expansion include certain parts of smartphones such as touchscreens, as well as MRI machines and video-game consoles.

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