The United States and China have “reached an understanding” on an agreement to reduce tariffs on the information technology trade. Washington hopes the move would “contribute to a rapid conclusion” of negotiations in Geneva on the World Trade Organization’s first major tariff-cutting deal in 17 years, expanding the Information Technology Agreement (ITA). The last time the WTO agreed to eliminate tariffs on IT products was in 1996 when many of today’s hi-tech products did not exist yet. The list of products that would be affected include medical devices, video game consoles and computer software. More than 200 tariff lines will be reduced to zero under an expanded ITA, which would also see China add USD12 billion to its annual exports of information and communications technology products, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a U.S. think-tank.