ITIF Proposes Expansion of Tariff-Free ICT Goods

Members of the World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement should expand the ITA’s list of covered products to include more than 250 additional information and communications technology goods, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation said in a September report. The foundation said this new and third expansion of the ITA -- called the “ITA-3” -- would eliminate tariffs on a range of evolving ICT goods and “generate tangible economic growth” for major trading nations, including the U.S., China, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and others.

The report examines the potential expansion’s impact on 14 ITA countries and specifically said advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including next-generation semiconductor technologies, should be included in the ITA’s list of covered goods. These would include materials for manufacturing printed circuits, cleanroom equipment, machine tools operated by lasers and photobeam, “circular polishing pads for the manufacture of semiconductor wafers” and “injection and compression molds for the manufacture of semiconductor devices.”

“Semiconductors underpin everything from [artificial intelligence] systems, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things to advanced wireless networks, smart grids, smart buildings, smart cities, digital healthcare devices, and even the next generation of quantum computing,” ITIF said. “Broadening the set of semiconductor production inputs and end products covered by the ITA would help lower semiconductor prices -- and makes perfect sense for the global economy.”

The ITA should also include evolving energy-efficiency technologies, smart manufacturing technologies such as industrial robots and 3D printers, unmanned drones, medical technologies and more. Such an ITA-3 expansion could increase U.S. exports of ICT products by $3.5 billion per year, the foundation said. Countries would be “wise to include such products in an ITA-3 both to bolster the competitiveness of their own domestic industries and in the interest of achieving greater domestic, and global, economic growth,” ITIF said. “[I]t is time for nations to start thinking about an ITA-3.”