After significant work in APEC and other fora, the Information Technology Agreement formally became part of the WTO system at the WTO's Ministerial Conference in Singapore in 1996 and went into effect on July 1, 1997.  Providing, as it does, free trade in an array of high-tech products, the agreement has been a true success, a boon to exporters and importers alike.

The problem is that - with the exception of some clarifications over certain semiconductors - it hasn't been up-dated in 18 years.  In hi-tech, that's generation upon generation of new products.  In short, hi-tech is much more hi-tech than it used to be.  Think iPhone, iPad, and all of their successors and competitors, along with numerous new medical devices, and the micro-gizmos that make them all run.  One set of products in that last, rather unscientifically named group goes by the acronym MCO for multi-component integrated circuits.  We are not certain, but we suspect that MCOs may have been among the products that America's ambassador to the WTO, Michael Punke, was referring to last March, when he told the WTO's ITA Committee that "certain products will need to be included."  In that same speech Ambassador explained that the effort to modernize and expand the ITA was stalled primarily because China - a huge beneficiary of the agreement - was, at that point, offering too little to make the negotiations worthwhile.

From our perspective, no one in the U.S. private sector has done more to advance the ITA negotiations than John Neuffer, vice president for global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council.  He is in China now for this year's major APEC meetings.  His blog from Beijing yesterday was first-rate, both as a description of the setting for next week's meetings and as an argument - a compelling argument - to China and others to act now to update and expand the Information Technology Agreement.  We offer it here in its entirety.  Keeping with our normal practice, we have bolded some names and passages, but, as the saying goes, "Emphasis added."

November 4, 2014 - Following the closing of polluting industries around Beijing and strict traffic limitations, the promise of clear skies in this chronically smoggy capital runs high in the lead up to the November 10-11 summit of the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies. In addition to possible progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the question looming largest for those wanting a major trade deliverable to emerge from the APEC meeting here is whether China will clear the way for a breakthrough in the yearlong deadlock that has delayed concluding an agreement to expand product coverage of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA).

Indeed, the planets may be aligned for progress on the ITA in the coming days, as the potential benefits for China that would flow from a breakthrough are myriad and significant.

For starters, Chinese industry stands to reap huge benefits from ITA expansion.  As the world's biggest exporter of tech products, Chinese firms would save billions in reduced tariffs on their overseas sales each year from ITA expansion.  Moreover, due to increased demand around the world for tech products generated by tariff elimination, China exports of these products would grow by billions as well.

At a trade conference in Shanghai on Monday cosponsored by the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation Center and the U.S.-China Business Council, the Chinese stakeholders in attendance were unambiguous in their view that ITA expansion would be a positive for the Chinese economy. Not only will expanded product coverage improve China's ability to sell to the world, it will also make the Chinese economy more competitive because of better access to innovative, more affordable products from other markets.

On the global stage as well, China has the chance to be the catalyst for giving a much-needed boost to the World Trade Organization (WTO). As WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo has recently said, the Geneva-based WTO is in crisis over the failure of a major multilateral trade facilitation agreement to proceed because of intransigence by India. By facilitating a breakthrough on the ITA (a WTO agreement), China's leadership would help bring about a solid win for that beleaguered trade body. It would also give energy to other plurilateral trade agreements currently under negotiation in Geneva in the areas of environmental goods and services.

Finally, as host to the APEC leaders' meeting this year, ITA expansion is an opportunity for China to deliver a strong economic and trade outcome to the region. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, and others in the neighborhood are heavily reliant on tech trade and are big supporters of ITA expansion. APEC played an important role in helping to establish the ITA in the mid-1990s. Now China holds the key to use APEC again to the benefit of the ITA - and the region.

One hopes the muscular pollution abatement measures put in place by China's leadership this week will keep the skies blue in this sprawling city during the APEC leaders' meeting. Similarly, there are high expectations that China can seize this APEC moment to clear a path forward that will allow all the negotiating parties involved in ITA expansion to return to Geneva to conclude this landmark trade deal this year.

China is rightfully making much of its accession on the world stage as a "great power." Stepping up on ITA expansion is an opportunity for China to show in a very concrete way that it's willing to do great things for the greater good as well.

We share Mr. Neuffer's hope that the APEC meetings in Beijing will lay the foundation for a landmark ITA deal this year.

Mr. Neuffer's references to pollution are a reminder that there is another plurilateral tariff negotiation going on in Geneva.  This is the effort to fashion a new Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA).

On Thursday, November 20, GBD and the National Association of Manufacturers will host a public discussion on those negotiations.   That session:

will run from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the National Press Club.  Please click the title link for registration options and other details.