A Chinese submission last week of a revised...

participants are convening this week in Geneva to push ITA expansion conclusions by the World Trade Organization Bali ministerial meeting in December. The revised list hasn’t been made public, said industry officials. But it marks an important move forward, said Stephen Ezell, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation senior analyst: “The sensitivities list is still too restricted, too narrow. There needs to be a broader set of products in a final expansion deal.” The ITA hasn’t expanded since its 1996 inception. Negotiations collapsed in June after the Chinese released a broad set of sensitivity product lines, said panelists at an industry event earlier this month (CD Oct 9 p15). The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative had no comment. The sensitivities list includes harmonized system product lines that governments don’t want to receive duty-free status in a final expansion deal. “U.S. industry is very wed to getting an ambitious outcome,” said an industry executive. “The ITA has not been updated in 16 years and includes none of the most innovative product lines,” he said. The Chinese play a fundamental role in potential expansion but there need to be concessions from other countries as well, said the executive. The 70 total ITA participant countries stand to benefit significantly, said Ezell. “We estimate that a fully expanded ITA, meaning an agreement that has the full set of products laid out by U.S. negotiators, will strengthen the global economy by $190 billion a year,” he said.