ITI PRAISES PASSAGE OF HOUSE ENERGY BILL

01.09.2008

ITI COMMENDS AMBASSADOR SCHWAB’S REMARKS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) Vice President of Technology and Trade John Neuffer today praised remarks by United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab that she is considering a dispute-settlement case against the Europeans for unfairly imposing tariffs on numerous IT products covered by the Information Technology Agreement (ITA).

Yesterday at a trade show in Las Vegas, Ambassador Schwab said, “We’re kind of burned out on the jaw-boning side of the equation. It's not working … We are looking at going to resolution on the ITA with the World Trade Organization.”

The European Union has been applying duties as high as 14 percent on computer equipment and other IT products, which represent the core of the digital economy. Under the ITA, which entered into force in 1997, the EU committed to bind and eliminate tariffs on all ITA-covered products.

“The EU is taxing innovation, contrary to the letter and spirit of the WTO Information Technology Agreement,” Neuffer said. “For two years, the IT industry has been urging the EU to keep its commitments under the ITA, and now the time has come for more aggressive action to defend this agreement,” he continued.

Neuffer added, “We urge USTR to use every tool at its disposal with the EU. The EU’s current practice of slapping tariffs on innovative IT products threatens to undermine the ITA, which has spurred worldwide innovation and productivity over the past decade. The scope of products covered by the ITA is clear, and the fact that additional features have been added to IT products cannot be an excuse to exclude them from the agreement.”

Currently, 70 WTO Members, representing 97% of world trade in IT products, are participants to the ITA. World exports of ITA products over the past 10 years have more than doubled in dollar terms, reaching $1.45 trillion in 2005 with annual average growth of 8.5%.

ABOUT ITI

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) represents the nation’s leading high-tech companies and works to advance public policies that boost innovation and global prosperity. ITI helps member companies achieve their policy objectives through building relationships with Members of Congress, Administration officials, and foreign governments; organizing industry-wide consensus on policy issues; and working to enact tech-friendly government policies.

###