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Participants said the 54 nations had struck a tentative deal to
expand to about 200 the IT products on which tariffs would be
dropped. The list had an annual trade value of some $1 trillion,
the World Trade Organization said late on Saturday.
The United States, China, Japan and others had been meeting at a
European Union mission in Geneva and aimed to finalize the
so-called Information Technology Agreement by Friday.
The U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, called the deal a
"major breakthrough" in talks, while WTO Director-General
Roberto Azevedo tweeted there was a "basis for an agreement,"
adding he was "very optimistic that we'll have a final
successful deal by the end of next week."
Products on the list include semiconductors, magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) machines, global positioning system (GPS) devices,
loudspeakers and video game consoles.
The Semiconductor Industry Association estimated the deal would
boost global gross domestic product by about $190 billion a
year, adding that negotiators also drafted timelines to phase
out tariffs for products that will not immediately go to
zero-duty.
Negotiators, who met from July 14 to 18, expect their respective
governments will sign off on the deal by Friday.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Krista
Hughes and Tom Miles; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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