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China shows willingness to move ahead on both services and IT tariffs

2013-10-09 14:33:36 Release Author:cuyoo Read Flow:3497次
US-led negotiations to reduce tariffs on a range of electronic goods are set to resume within weeks, after China indicated it would shorten a list of products it had wanted excluded.

The move to restart the talks, which collapsed in July, came as Beijing also submitted a formal request to join negotiations to reach a separate agreement on regulating the $4tn annual global trade in services.

Together, the moves indicate a willingness by Beijing to join US-led negotiations outside the World Trade Organisation framework, launched in frustration with a lack of progress in the WTO.

US officials had raised concerns over China’s efforts to join the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) discussions after Beijing took a hard line in the talks, which aim to cut -tariffs on electronic goods.

However, China sought to assuage those concerns in Bali last week during meetings with the US and other participants in the IT talks.

It also sought to reassure the US and others that it did not want to play a blocking role in the services negotiations.

The US and other countries suspended talks to update the 1996 Information Technology Agreement after China submitted a list of more than 100 products, including computers, it wanted kept off the 256-product list at the centre of the negotiations.

But trade officials said on 6th October that as a result of the meetings in Bali those talks were expected to resume in Geneva as soon as October 21.

“It’s a very significant breakthrough,” said Michael Punke, the US ambassador to the WTO and Washington’s lead negotiator in both the IT and services talks.

The US and 19 other members of the WTO have been trying to craft a plurilateral deal that would expand the IT agreement. China’s participation is seen as crucial because of its role as the leading exporter of IT products.

With the resumption of the IT talks, the hope, trade officials said, was that the countries could conclude a deal before the WTO ministerial meeting in Bali in December.

However, one trade official cautioned that “there is still a lot of negotiating to do” on the IT agreement.

“There is still a line by line slog that will go on.”

The services discussions are expected to take much longer and China’s attempt to join is likely to add -complications.

The US is likely to present China’s formal request to join the discussions to the two dozen other participants by the end of this week.
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