Information technology and e-commerce
Filter :
Language
Publication date
Content type
Series
Authors
15 Years of the Information Technology Agreement
The Information and Technology Agreement (ITA) was finalized at the first WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore in 1996 committing its participants to completely eliminate duties on certain information technology products. In its 15 years the ITA has promoted affordable access to a wide range of technologies encouraging closer cooperation between developed and developing countries. As production networks become increasingly global the ITA will continue to facilitate the shift from products made in a specific country to “made in the world”. To mark the 15th anniversary of the ITA this publication charts the political and technical obstacles which were overcome during the creation of the Agreement and the issues which still need to be resolved. It details the establishment of the ITA Committee and how the Agreement is implemented and investigates the impact the ITA has had on trade liberalization and innovation. The publication also examines the effect information technology has had on global production networks and what this means for developing countries and the ITA.
A Quantitative Assessment of Electronic Commerce
This paper tries to assess quantitatively the role of electronic commerce in economic activity and in trade and tariff revenue collection. The share of value added that potentially lends itself to electronic trade represents around 30 percent of GDP most importantly distribution finance and business services. Electronic commerce is also likely to boost trade in many services sectors significantly. Despite the growing importance of electronic commerce for economic activity and trade tariff revenue loss from electronic commerce is likely to be minimal. Trade in potentially digitizable media goods which currently faces a tariff in some countries represents less than one percent of total world trade. The revenue collected on these products amounts to less than one percent of total tariff revenue in most countries. Even if some of this trade moved “online” tariff revenue loss would be only a very small share of tariff revenue.