[tinwhiskers] US, Japan, Taiwan go to WTO to challenge EU high-tech tariffs
- From: "Bob Landman" <rlandman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tinwhiskers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:53:46 -0400
The EU is being unfair to the USA? I'm soo (not) surprised!
Bob Landman
H&L Instruments,LLC
http://www.edn.com/blog/1750000175/post/1030031903.html?nid=3351&rid=1458594938
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
US, Japan, Taiwan go to WTO to challenge EU high-tech tariffs
Aug 19 2008 11:33AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |
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The United States was joined by Japan and Taiwan this week in asking the WTO
(World Trade Organization) to step in and help the countries settle a dispute
with the European Union over duty-free treatment on certain electronics devices.
In doing so, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Susan C Schwab on Monday
requested the WTO establish a dispute settlement panel and review whether the
EU has failed to accord duty-free treatment to certain products covered by the
WTO?s Information Technology Agreement (ITA). The 1996 agreement eliminates
tariffs on electronic information products among the largest makers and
consumers of those goods.
Schwab?s challenge involves three products introduced after 1996, namely cable
boxes that can access the Internet, flat-panel computer monitors, and certain
computer printers that can also scan, fax, and/or copy. In short, the EU is
claiming that these products are not information technology products because of
the advancements made to their original designs. The EU?s opinion is that
flat-panel monitors that show videos are TVs, not PC components, and therefore
should see 14% duties. Further, the EU believes cable converter boxes with
Internet access also face that same duty and that printers with other
capabilities, such as faxing, are copiers not printers, and face a 6% duty.
The ITA?s wording, as the wordings of most WTO agreements are, is a little
tricky and leaves wiggle for those countries and unions signed on.
While ITA is clearly focused on only those technology goods that encourage the
spread of information, it states that ?each party's trade regime should evolve
in a manner that enhances market access opportunities for information
technology products.? ITA also encourages each participant to be ?mindful of
the positive contribution information technology makes to global economic
growth and welfare? and ?to achieve maximum freedom of world trade in
information technology products.?
Tariffs don?t encourage ?maximum freedom? and are rarely helpful when it comes
to improving global welfare. And according to the US, the EU is not ?evolving?
its treatment of duties as technology has evolved.
?In effect, the EU is taxing innovation ? a move that could impair continued
technological development in the information technology industry and raise
prices for millions of businesses and consumers,? a statement made Monday by
the USTR reads.
The USTR estimates global exports of the three products at more than $70
billion in 2007.
This seems to boil down to where to draw the line on what is an information
product and what isn?t. The ITA cites calculators amongst its covered
technologies. Cleary, calculators that do nothing more than math are
information products. But as consumer applications continue to edge there way
into information electronics, extending the bridge between the office/classroom
and the home, the line as to technologies like the three noted above becomes
blurred.
Will agreements like the ITA become less and less applicable and more and more
outdated to electronics trade as this trend continues? Do agreements like the
ITA have a shelf life or is the EU within its rights imposing trade tariffs on
such high-tech goods? Share your opinion below.
--Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News
Reader Comments
(Add your comments)
at 8/19/2008 2:10:54 PM, Totally_Lost said:
LCD Monitors are hardly TV's by any definition, they simply replace the Glass
Monitors without any additional primary uses. Given that the US Dem's are hell
bent on tearing down NAFTA because of their UNION special interests demands,
it's probably a good time just to trash all the free trade agreements, and have
some all out tariff wars until these tax happy politicians learn their own
lessons again.
at 8/19/2008 2:26:59 PM, Philip Dion said:
Can they be any more stupid? A flat panel without a tuner is not a TV, it is by
definition a monitor. A TV by definition must have a tuner in it. There is no
point to even argue here. The EU's other claims are just as bad. I agree, bring
on tariff wars all around (I always try to buy made in USA anyhow).
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