back to article China softens duty-free stance to revive global IT trade talks

Global trade talks aimed at removing tariffs on a swathe of technology products are set to restart within weeks after China finally agreed to reverse a hardline decision which threatened to derail the ambitious plans. The World Trade Organisation talks aim to update the 1996 Information Technology Agreement (ITA) by adding an …

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  1. An0n C0w4rd

    However, in a series of meetings in Bali last week, China took a more conciliatory tone, indicating that it was prepared to shorten the list of products it wants excluded

    What are they asking for in return for their "concessions"? I doubt very much whether they are going to reduce the list of exclusions without getting something else in return....

  2. Ram Sambamurthy

    global manufacturing giant India?

    when did india become a global manufacturing giant? indian products are the shoddiest. that's why you see indians at airports abroad returning with huge boxes of TVs, and whatever else you can think of.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A chink in their armour?

    A chink in their armour?

  4. anthonymaw

    China government is more broke than they admit

    The China government is more broke than they will admit to the rest of the world. Think about it: They have spent vast sums of money building domestic infrastructure over the past two decades and are desperately trying to modernize their military with the latest expensive high-tech weapons. To make things worse, their biggest asset holding is United States *debt* which Uncle Sam increasingly looks likely might default on. So yeah the government of China needs all the revenue it can get, and with "foreign" electronic goods taxes/duties of 38%, ironically even if they are manufactured domestically, there is a huge and growing potential source of revenue that they cannot overlook as Chinese consumer demand rises. (this author is proudly 100% Han Chinese Canadian)

  5. mhenriday
    Boffin

    Looks to me as if the Chinese government,

    seeing the parlous situation in which world trade finds itself amid worries about a possible US default, which would really throw the cat among the pigeons, has decided to do what it can to give IT trade a boost. The problem is that in the best of cases, negotiatiing a new agreement is going to take quite some time, while the US default is staring us in the face....

    Henri

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