BEIJING – The U.S. and China reached an agreement to drop tariffs on a wide range of technology products, according to a senior U.S. trade official, in a deal that its backers say could cover $1 trillion in trade.
The U.S. has been pushing to include medical devices, advanced semiconductors and other items in the Information Technology Agreement. The two countries late Monday reached a deal to expand the Information Technology Agreement, a global technology trade pact, to cover semiconductors, medical devices, GPS devices and other newer products, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Tuesday in Beijing. The deal could be ratified in December. The news was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The U.S., the European Union and Japan have been pushing to update the deal, which was originally struck in 1997 to curb tariffs in the technology industry. But China had been reluctant to go along, negotiators say, in part because of its desire to protect and build its semiconductor industry.
U.S. and Chinese negotiators conducted marathon trade sessions on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing to get a deal. The U.S. had been counting on China?s desire, as the host country of APEC, to want to be able to chalk up concrete results.
