Wto Infotech Agreement On Track For July 1

The worlds leading technology manufacturing nations are on track to bring a global Information Technology Agreement (ITA) into force on July 1, the acting US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said on Monday.

The announcement followed a week of technical discussions at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva on the pact, which would reduce tariff levels on most technology products to zero by 2000.We are making solid progress and are clearly on track to make the ITA a reality, said Barshefsky in a statement.

In addition to the 28 countries that joined the ITA at a WTO meeting in Singapore, Costa Rica and New Zealand formally joined last week, the statement said. Expectations are high that once the necessary details are completed, Malaysia and Thailand will join by March 1(deadline). Last week, the Czech Republic, Poland and India also voiced strong interest in joining, it added.