The Latest in IT Security

The United States on Monday urged China to give ground on a deal to eliminate duties on billions of dollars of technology products and said it would use talks in Beijing later this week to push to restart negotiations. The United States and Europe have blamed China, the worlds biggest exporter of IT products, for derailing talks on a pact on technology trade by asking for too many exemptions. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said U.S. officials aimed to use talks with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing on July 9-10 to make concrete progress toward resolving our differences … in order to restart the negotiations. Breaking the deadlock over updating the World Trade Organizations 16-year-old Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which eliminated duties on products including personal computers and telephones, could in turn give a boost to talks on a U.S.-China bilateral investment treaty, he said. China was well able to resolve outstanding ITA issues this year during its chairmanship of the regional Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping, he said, urging China to revise its list of excluded goods.