China has announced that it is cutting tariffs on a wide range of technology products. The cuts are likely to give a push to industrial innovation in the country.

According to China's Ministry of Finance, the tariff cuts were brought about in line with the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), a global technology trade pact under the World Trade Organization.

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Some of the products included in such tariff cuts are medical devices, semiconductors, touch screens and integrated circuits. The Chinese government has also pledged to reduce tariffs on these products to zero within the seven years.

According to CIOL, the global trade of these 201 IT products included in the list amounts to $1.3 trillion. This also constitutes about 10 percent of the world's total trade.

According to Economic Times, the decision to eliminate duties on these products will cost China $2.24 billion (15 billion yuan) annually. The country's potential tariff revenue losses are likely to be as much as $7 billion (52 billion yuan) annually.

China's legislature passed a bill earlier this month to ratify an amendment to the ITA. The National People's Congress Foreign Affairs Committee in a review report said that such ratification would help China build an open economic system. It also said that the ratification would also boost the development of the country's IT industry.

The ITA agreement was made by more than 50 countries last year at a WTO meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The member countries agreed to implement their tariff commitments by July 1, 2016.

TagsInformation Technology Agreement, World Trade Organization, The National People's Congress Foreign Affairs Committee