The EU yesterday proposed updating a WTO agreement on high-technology products to include new models and expand the list of products exempt from customs duties to neutralize a complaint from the US, Japan and Taiwan.
“We need an ITA [Information Technology Agreement] for the 21st century that will continue to benefit our consumers and businesses,” EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said in a statement.
The existing ITA dates from 1996 and prohibits duties on certain high-technology products.
But the US, Japan and Taiwan claim the EU is violating WTO rules by imposing duties on imports of certain products such as “cable boxes that can access the Internet, flat-panel computer monitors, and certain computer printers that can also scan, fax and/or copy.”
The US estimates that worldwide exports of these products amounted to more than US$70 billion last year.
Brussels proposes updating and extending the ITA “within a matter of months, not years,” saying the current agreement “has reached its limits” and does not take into account the technological developments of the past 12 years.
The EU Commission said that updating the ITA “would provide an additional boost in trade in these products and be the best way to address the increasing challenges of technological development and convergence.”
“The Commission has maintained that a change in ITA criteria can only be made on the basis of consensus amongst all ITA participants, as provided by the agreement itself, and not as a result of litigation by some members,” it added.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS