EU looks to review tech trade deal

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The EU is looking to expand a 1996 deal on imported goods from around the world even as it continues to face pressure on the non- inclusion of other goods in the agreement.

Only a few months ago in July, the US and Japan formally sued the EU at the World Trade Organisation, saying it was being overly prescriptive by not including goods such as computer screens and printers in the International Technology Agreement (ITA).

The EU's executive commission said it would present to the WTO on Monday its plan to update the ITA to include new products, possibly such as optical fibers, and encompass more markets beyond its 70 countries or customs areas at the moment.

The Commission also said the ITA should tackle red-tape restrictions on technology imports in some countries, such as multiple testing of products for different markets.

"The ITA remains a milestone duty-free agreement. But it risks being left behind after 12 years of technological development," European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said in a statement.

The EU angered the United States and Japan in 2005 when it began re-imposing duties on computer screens, multi-function printers and TV set-top boxes, saying they were mainstream consumer products, not pure high-tech goods covered by the ITA.

Washington estimates that global exports of the products under dispute, which are made by companies like US companies such as Hewlett-Packard, or Canon and Ricoh of Japan, total more than $70 billion (£38.94 billion).

A spokeswoman for US trade representative Susan Schwab, said Washington had not yet seen the EU's proposal for reforming the ITA but including new products would not address US concerns about keeping existing products duty-free.

"We are of course open to ideas for resolving the WTO dispute but if the (EU) is truly interested in providing duty-free treatment for IT products, it is unclear why it continues to apply duties to the ITA products that are the subject of the dispute," spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said.

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