Malaysia To Benefit Greatly From ITA Expansion, Says Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia stands to benefit greatly from the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) following the conclusion of the negotiations, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said. Its minister, Mustapa Mohamed said the negotiations were concluded Wednesday at the 10th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. "It was a historical and significant achievement and we hope that this will inspire progress in other areas of WTO negotiations. "With this further liberalisation of trade expansion under the original 1996 ITA, Malaysia's information and communications technology (ICT) industry will have easier access to a wider market globally," he said in a statement Thursday. Malaysia and 23 others countries were involved in the negotiations that included major information technology (IT) producing powerhouses such as China, the US, European Union, Japan, South Korea and several ASEAN member states, comprising about 90 per cent of world trade. This expansion covers 201 high-technology ICT products with an estimated global annual trade of US$1.3 trillion (US$1=RM4.31), about 10 per cent of world trade in goods. The ITA Expansion negotiations, which began in 2012, included new generation multi-component integrated circuits (MCOs), touch screens, GPS navigation equipment, portable interactive electronic education devices, video game consoles, and medical equipment such as magnetic resonance imaging products and ultra-sonic scanning apparatus. Mustapa said the original ITA boosted Malaysia's ICT industry revenues to nearly three-fold from US$21.7 billion in 1996 to US$60.5 billion in 2010, averaging eight per cent annual growth. He urged Malaysian companies to fully capitalise on the market-liberalisation measures in the ITA. "We will see, for example, massive reductions in tariffs for Canada (88 per cent), the US (80 per cent), the EU (77 per cent) and Taiwan (64 per cent). "Tariff liberalisation through the ITA mechanism will complement ASEAN economic integration goals, particularly as the regional hub for global value chain interconnectivity," he added. -- BERNAMA