The Office of the United States Trade Representative and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China announced on November 10, 2014 that the United States and China have reached an agreement on the coverage of major technology products under the World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA). This would effectively clear a major roadblock that caused the breakdown of talks late last year among participating countries on the expansion of the ITA.

The ITA is an agreement that provides for duty-free treatment of certain “information technology” (IT) products. The original agreement was negotiated by 29 participants and concluded in December 1996. The number of participants has now grown to 52, representing 80 World Trade Organization (WTO) members, accounting for approximately 97 percent of world trade in IT products.