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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Brand Hong Kong - Asia world city
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Information Technology Agreement

Hong Kong, China is a signatory to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) concluded in December 1996.  Under the ITA, signatories shall reduce their tariffs on specified information technology-related products originating from all WTO Members (including non-signatories) to zero.

The main product categories covered by the ITA include: computers, semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, telecommunication apparatus, instruments and apparatus (e.g. cash registers, electronic calculators), data-storage media and software, and parts and accessories to the above six categories of products.

Over 80 WTO Members are Participants to the ITA.  Their aggregate trade in those products covered by the ITA represented approximately 97% of world share.

Hong Kong, China has implemented all the ITA elimination commitments on 1 July 1997.  Our manufacturers and traders have been benefiting from the enhanced market access opportunities arising from tariff elimination under the ITA.

Please visit the WTO website for further information about the ITA, including its Participants and product coverage.

Review of Product Coverage

The ITA provides for Participants to periodically review the product coverage with a view to agreeing, by consensus, whether in the light of technological developments, the product coverage should be modified to incorporate additional products.

In 2012, some ITA Participants including Hong Kong, China started to discuss including additional products in the ITA.  The Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products (ITA Expansion) was announced in December 2015, liberalizing trade on IT products beyond the original ITA.  This new agreement covers tariff elimination on 201 additional IT products, which include new generation semi-conductors, GPS navigation systems, tools for manufacturing printed circuits, telecommunications satellites, touch screens and some advanced medical equipment.  According to the WTO, annual trade of these products is estimated at US$1.3 trillion.