The 10th ministerial conference of World Trade Organization (WTO) held in Nairobi from December 15 to December 18 just produced its first breakthrough. On December 16, 2015, members of the 20-year old WTO signed an agreement for the expansion of Information Technologies (ITA).

The agreement includes the removal of taxes on 201 additional IT products, thus boosting international trade with additional exports and imports valued at 1,300 billion USD annually.

The deal inked in Nairobi thus expands the first ATI agreement signed in 1996 and whose commercial value is currently valued at 1,600 billion USD.

The updated accord on Technologies and information now represents $2,900 billion/year in trade. It is therefore the most important tax-cutting plurilateral initiative (non-universal, but among key actors and accessible to all) signed over the past 18 years. “This is more than that for automobile industry but also for textile and steelmaking combined,” WTO’s Director General Roberto Azevêdo told Le Temps newspapers

The Information Technologies Agreement plans by 2024 to gradually bring to zero, taxes implemented on various products: software, computers, semi-conductors, lentils, GPS and medical equipment (IRM, touchscreens, satellites, etc.).