Russia will not join the new agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the reduction of trade tariffs on IT-products. This was reported to “Vedomosti” by the director of the Department of Trade Negotiations of the Ministry of Economic Development Maksim Medvedkov. This agreement is to be signed this week by the United States, China and the European Union. According to the Financial Times, it will affect approximately 200 high-tech products ranging from semiconductors and to game consoles. This is a new version of ITA (Information Technology Agreement) adopted by the participants of the WTO in 1996. The previous version was joined by Russia in September 2013.

      According to Medvedkov, Russia refuses to sign an extended agreement out of the desire to protect domestic producers: a new version of the document now affects many goods that are produced in Russia. In particular, the agreement will now regulate the import duties on GPS devices, as well as some types of telecommunication and medical equipment. Now the Russian import duty on them exceeds 10 percent.