China And The US Get Comfortable

The deal will be aimed at removing tariffs on high tech goods.

This week’s trade agreement between the US and China for technology is the first of it’s kind since 1996. The deal will be aimed at removing tariffs on high tech goods. Formed while Obama was in Beijing this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, this new policy is hoping to enlarge the Information Technology Agreement that went into effect in 1997.  The original ITA has been in effect for nearly 20 years and since it’s initial drafting, it has had no additions or edits. Before this past week, it has been attempted to be updated several times, but continuing disagreements between the US and China stalled the project.

The original ITA has been in effect for nearly 20 years and since it’s initial drafting, it has had no additions or edits.

Those that support the new policy project that it will result in an estimated $1 trillion dollars in annual sales of tech products. Not only that, but it also seems to secure the idealthat Obama communicated, that the US and China have reached a new understanding, and is an impressive mark of development in the two nations’ relation. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, “The U.S. also argued that a deal on technology would help convince the administration and members of Congress that China could show enough flexibility to eventually reach a far more complex investment treaty that the two nations have made a priority”.

Those that support the new policy project that it will result in an estimated $1 trillion dollars in annual sales of tech products.

Obama unveiled the deal Tuesday morning, which will expand the ITA, which is a global technology trade pact, to include 200 different tariff categories, including medical devices, semiconductors, GPS devices, and other products. In negotiation for over a year, it is likely that it will be signed in December by members of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.