The Single Rule That Makes Your Phone Battery Cost Less

Episode 70 of Global Trade with Fexingo zooms in on one obscure but massive trade rule: the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1996 and its 2015 expansion. Lucas and Luna trace how a single zero-tariff commitment on 217 product categories collapsed the cost of lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, and display panels — the guts of every smartphone. They walk through the surprising origin story (Singapore, not Geneva), the exact tariff reduction from 15% to zero, and what happens when a country like China uses rules of origin to game the system. The episode also explains why the WTO's failure to extend the ITA to new products — like EV batteries — is now a flashpoint in US-China trade tensions. A concrete, number-driven look at how one tariff line reshaped the device in your pocket. #InformationTechnologyAgreement #WTO #LithiumIonBatteries #SmartphoneCosts #TariffReduction #SingaporeTrade #ElectronicsTrade #RulesOfOrigin #USChinaTrade #EVBatteries #ZeroTariff #GlobalSupplyChain #Semiconductors #DisplayPanels #Economics #TradePolicy #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo