WTO opens probe on EU tech goods tariffs

The Financial Times reports on WTO plans to investigate charges by the US, Japan and Taiwan that EU tariffs on high-tech goods are violating a 1996 agreement on duty-free status for IT products.

The Wall Street Journal adds that last week, the EU proposed eliminating the taxes by reopening the WTO's 12-year-old agreement.

Brussels argues that the products, ranging from monitors and satellite boxes to printers, aren't covered by the deal because they entered the market after the accord took effect.

The International Herald Tribune says the US told the WTO that the EU "and its member states promised duty-free treatment to those products. We spent over two years trying to work with the [EU] to address our concerns, without success."

The paper adds that Washington said Brussels' taxes on these products impede trade and "threaten to undermine tariff commitments on information technology products, which are so important to trade and investment".

• Previous article
• Next article