MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow will not sign the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement to reduce tariffs on high-tech products, the Russian Vedomosti newspaper reported Tuesday, citing the country’s Economic Development Ministry spokesman.
Last week, the WTO set a deadline of Friday, July 24, for member states to sign additions to the 1996 Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which would expand to about 200 the number of technology products on which tariffs should be dropped. Russia joined the original treaty in 2013.
Russia's refusal to sign the expanded version of the ITA is driven by motives to protect local manufacturers since it refers to a large number of goods produced in the country, Maksim Medvedkov told Vedomosti.
According to the spokesman, the new deal will include scaling back tariffs not only on semiconductors and game consoles, but also on Global Positioning Systems (GPS), several types of telecommunications and medical equipment, which are currently subject to import duty taxation of more than 10 percent.
Russia is not a major exporter of most of the products listed in the agreement, but it is trying to encourage domestic production of some of them, Medvedkov explained.
