A new global trade agreement that eliminates tariffs on more than 200 kinds of IT products should result in lower prices to technology buyers around the world as it is implemented over the next three years.

The tentative deal, struck on Friday at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva, affects a wide variety of products ranging from smartphones, routers, and ink cartridges to video game consoles and telecommunications satellites. It covers US$1.3 trillion worth of global trade, about 7 percent of total trade today.

Import duties won’t be removed immediately. They will begin to be phased out next year, and eliminated within three years, the European Commission said. The new deal extends the 1996 Information Technology Agreement that eliminated customs duties on IT products such as computers, telephones, digital cameras and their parts. The list of items covered under the new agreement includes finished products as well as manufacturing equipment and components.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here