More than 50 members of the World Trade Organisation on Wednesday concluded the biggest tariff-reduction deal in almost two decades, eliminating restrictions on the $1.3tn trade of 201 IT products. The expansion of the 1996 Information Technology Agreement will increase global gross domestic product by $190bn a year, according to IT experts, as the costs are cut in trading goods from GPS devices and video game consoles to next-generation semiconductors. Trade ministers said it would also help reinvigorate the WTO, which is deeply divided over its failure to break the years-long deadlock in negotiations over the 2001 Doha Development Agenda.

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Topics: NAIROBI MINISTERIAL DOHA ROUND WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT (ITA) INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

Authors: FINANCIAL TIMES