Activites

• 2016/06/08 Vote in plenary scheduled
• 2016/05/26 Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading
  • A8-0186/2016 summary

    The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Godelieve QUISTHOUDT-ROWOHL (EPP, DE) on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of an agreement in the form of the Declaration on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products (ITA). The committee recommended the European Parliament to give its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement. To recall, the first Information Technology Agreement (ITA) was concluded at the Singapore Ministerial Conference in December 1996 and entered into force in 1997. While only 29 WTO Member States initially concluded the agreement, ITA today counts 82 participants. The ITA requires that each participant eliminates and binds customs duties at zero on a Most Favoured Nation basis for all information technology (IT) products covered. The ITA covers about 200 tariff lines, including computers, telephones, but also inputs, components and machinery for the production of IT goods. In May 2012, six countries launched negotiations to expand the product coverage of the agreement (EU, US, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Costa Rica). They came to be joined by 21 other members. On 24 July 2015, an agreement was reached on an additional list of 201 IT products. Annual trade in these 201 products is valued at over USD 1.3 trillion per year, and accounts for approximately 10% of total global trade today. The agreement in the form of a Declaration on the Expansion of the ITA (and the schedules containing the staging commitments of the participants) was adopted by the Ministers of the participant countries on 16 December 2015 during the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi.  In the short justification which accompanies the report, it is stated that EU exports EUR 189 billion in products covered by the ITA expansion, a figure that is expected to increase significantly following tariff cuts. The agreement will lead to lower prices for consumers, but also for producers who depend on imported components. Some sectors will however also experience increased competition. Members are therefore pleased to see that the EU negotiated longer staging for some products that were considered to be sensitive, while the majority of the non-sensitive tariffs will be eliminated at the entry into force of the agreement. Given that the expansion of the ITA is a landmark deal, the first major tariff cutting deal since the WTO was created with a huge potential to create jobs and boost GDP growth, it is proposed that the European Parliament gives its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement.

• 2016/05/24 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2016/04/14 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2016/03/30 Legislative proposal published
  • 06925/2016 summary

    PURPOSE: to conclude, on behalf of the European Union, an agreement in the form of the Declaration on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products (ITA). PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act.  BACKGROUND: the Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products, commonly referred to as the Information Technology Agreement (‘ITA’), was adopted in Singapore on 13 December 1996. Paragraph 3 of the Annex to the ITA states that participants are to meet periodically under the auspices of the Council on Trade in Goods of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to review the product coverage with a view to agreeing, by consensus, whether it is appropriate to modify the Attachments to that Annex to incorporate additional products. On 8 July 2009, the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate a review of the ITA with a view to expanding its product coverage to reflect technological developments and convergence. On 28 July 2015, the participants in the negotiations issued a Declaration on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products (‘the Declaration on the expansion of the ITA’), which records the results of the negotiations. During the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Nairobi from 15 to 18 December 2015, the participants in the negotiations issued the Ministerial Declaration which endorses and opens for acceptance the Declaration on the expansion of the ITA. The Ministerial Declaration also records the agreement of the participants in the negotiations with the draft schedules submitted by each of them pursuant to paragraph 5 of the Declaration on the expansion of the ITA, which are included in WTO document G/MA/W/117. CONTENT: the draft Council Decision seeks the approval, on behalf of the European Union, of the Declaration on the expansion of the ITA and the schedules submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 thereof. For further details please refer to the summary of the initial legislative proposal dated from 8.3.2016.

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/trade/', 'title': 'Trade'}, MALMSTRÖM Cecilia
• 2016/03/08 Initial legislative proposal published
  • COM(2016)0122 summary

    PURPOSE: to conclude, on behalf of the European Union, an agreement in the form of a Declaration on the expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products (ITA).PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. BACKGROUND: the "Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products", known as the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), was concluded by 29 WTO Member States at the Singapore Ministerial Conference in 1996. The ITA entered into force in the European Union in 1997. Today, the ITA counts 82 participants, or half of WTO Members, and covers 97 % of trade in this sector.The ITA requires that each participant eliminates and binds customs duties at zero on a Most Favoured Nation basis for all information technology (IT) products covered. The ITA covers about 200 tariff lines, including computers, telephones, but also inputs, components and machinery for the production of IT goods.The ITA Ministerial Declaration establishes that participants shall meet periodically under the auspices of the Council on Trade in Goods to review the product coverage specified in the Attachments, with a view to agreeing, by consensus, whether in the light of technological developments, experience in applying the tariff concessions, or changes to the HS nomenclature, the Attachments should be modified to incorporate additional products.In May 2012, several countries proposed to expand the product coverage of the ITA. On 24 July 2015, the text of the "Declaration on the Expansion of Trade on Information Technology Products" was agreed, with a view to bind and eliminate customs duties on an additional list of 201 IT products. Annual trade in these 201 products is valued at over USD 1.3 trillion per year, and accounts for approximately 10 % of total global trade today.The participants agreed on the staging commitments for each product listed in document G/MA/W/117. The agreement in the form of a Declaration on the Expansion of the ITA (and the schedules containing the staging commitments of the participants) was adopted by the Ministers of the participant countries on 16 December 2015.IMPACT ASSESSMENT: an economic assessment was made by an external company before the negotiations started. With the final results of the negotiations now known, the Commission has made its own in-house assessment, of which the following three elements are the most important findings: EUR 74-150 billion of EU exports are covered by the agreement;EU exporters will save EUR 0.8-2.1 billion in duty payments upon their extra EU exports;as the products under negotiation are crucial intermediates in many EU exports significant value chain effects can be expected. A general equilibrium simulation points to overall exports of goods that may increase by about 0.7 % to 1.4 % of their baseline value. In terms of current extra EU exports of goods, this amounts to EUR 12-24 billion.CONTENT: under this draft Decision, the Council is called upon to approve, on behalf of the European Union, the Declaration on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products (ITA), together with the schedules submitted by other participants in the negotiations and which are contained in the WTO document G/MA/W/117.The objective of the ITA expansion is to eliminate duties on IT goods not included in the original ITA.BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: in total the European Union is expected to lose EUR 1.5 billion in duties on IT goods. However, this loss will be spread out over a total of 7 years. Most low duties will be eliminated at entry into force, representing 25 % of duty value. After 3 years more than 60 % of duty will have been phased out, while 30 % will only be eliminated after 7 years.

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/trade/', 'title': 'Trade'}, MALMSTRÖM Cecilia

Documents

• Initial legislative proposal published: COM(2016)0122
• Legislative proposal published: 06925/2016
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A8-0186/2016

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)