ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, December 14, 1996            TAG: 9612160042
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-9  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: SINGAPORE

TRADE PACT ENDORSEMENT SHOULD CUT COMPUTER COSTS

THE DEAL will abolish import duties on computers, software, semiconductors and telecommunication equipment.

Consumers will see price cuts on home computers and hundreds of other high-tech products in 1997 with the endorsement Friday of one of the world's biggest trade pacts.

Trade ministers from 28 countries that conduct most of the world's information technology trade - a $600 billion industry last year - endorsed the U.S.-crafted deal.

Major U.S. computer companies, including Compaq and Intel, hailed the Information Technology Agreement, which will abolish import duties on computers, software, semiconductors and telecommunication equipment between July 1, 1997, and Jan. 1, 2000.

``The ITA is really about bringing affordable access to the Internet to the greatest number of people around the world,'' said John Tasker, a vice president at Compaq, the world's fifth-largest computer company.

Much of the equipment needed to build computer networks that allow access to the Internet is covered under the pact, and personal computers themselves will be cheaper.

Acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky called the agreement a ``global tax cut.''

Working day and night, Barshefsky negotiated the deal at the World Trade Organization conference in Singapore, first thrashing out differences with the European Union, which has some of the highest duties, and later getting Asian countries on board.

Tariffs in some parts of Asia, a hub of info-tech manufacturing, are as high as 30 percent.

In the United States, about 1.8 million people work in high-tech or related industries.

``There is no question this agreement is a full go-ahead,'' Barshefsky told reporters. ``There is no question implementation will begin in 1997.'' The deal dominated the five-day meeting of the WTO, whose 128 member nations ended their first-ever conference by approving a package of measures designed to take trade liberalization into the 21st century.

They agreed to launch studies into global trade rules on investment, fair competition and government contracts.

LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky
          speaks with her delegation during the World Trade Organization 
          ministerial conference in Singapore on Friday.