Previously, Japan has greatly benefitted from many of the agreements and negotiation rounds that the WTO (World Trade Organization) has set in place. From the initial trade agreements set in place after WWII, Japan was able to freely trade with other countries and open it's doors to working with countries all around the world. Much of Japan's postwar economic expansion is due to this and to the Bretton Woods agreement. One particular agreement that has benefitted Japan is the ITA (Information Technology Agreement). Japan was one of the countries that lead this agreement which works to reduce trade barriers and eliminate tariffs for the rapidly growing electronics and IT industry. This agreement aims to completely eliminate tariffs on around 200 products for the 92 participating countries by 2024. Since Japan is a large manufacturer and exporter of electronic products, the elimination of tariffs and trade barriers for electronics is highly beneficial for the country. It was estimated that the ITA would reduce tariffs by 170 billion yen (). This means that other countries would not be able to impose tariffs on Japanese IT products and also that the components and materials imported to produce these products would be cheaper since tariffs would be eliminated. Although this has previously helped Japan's electronics industry, the industry growth seems to have slowed down in recent years. In fact, according to Harvard's Atlas of Economic Complexity, their Electronics Export growth from 2008-2018 is valued at -2.08%.
Whether or not this decrease in growth can be tied into the ITA is difficult to discern. Some believe that the coverage of products in the agreement is problematic. Since the implementation of the ITA in 1996, the members of the agreement have not changed the coverage (). The reason why this is problematic is because of how much IT industries have grown. Many new products have been created in the past two decades which don't seem to be covered in the agreement.
“Information Technology Agreement.” WTO, www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/inftec_e/inftec_e.htm.
https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2015/1217_03.html
https://www.meti.go.jp/english/publications/pdf/journal2015_05b.pdf
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