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The WTO Deal on Basic Telecommunications Services
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Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 11:48:03 -0500
From: Carla Legendre
Join the Virtual Institute of Information [www.ctr.columbia.edu/vii/] and Georgetown University's Communication, Culture, and Technology Program [www.georgetown.edu/grad/CCT/] for an on-line conference on Thursday, March 20, 1997, 10-12pm eastern time [www.ctr.columbia.edu/vii/wto/].
Moderated by Dr. William J. Drake Associate Director, Communication, Culture, and Technology Program, Georgetown University [www.georgetown.edu/grad/CCT]
A short introduction appears below, but if you have any questions, please contact the Virtual Institute of Information: (tel) 212 854 4222, (fax) 212 932 7816, (e-mail) vii@ctr.columbia.edu
The World Trade Organization Deal on Basic Telecommunications Services:
Implications for National Markets and the Global Information Infrastructure
On February 15, 1997, an historic agreement to liberalize foreign entry into basic telecommunications services markets was reached under the auspices of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO). According to the WTO, the sixty eight countries involved account for ninety percent of the revenues of a market worth well over half a trillion dollars per year world-wide.
In a narrow sense, the recent deal is the product of a negotiation launched in 1994 by members of the WTO's Group on Basic Telecommunications (GBT) . But in a broader sense, the GBT agreement is the continuation of a process set underway during the Uruguay Round trade negotiations that lasted from 1986 to 1994. In addition to covering traditional sectors like manufacturing and new issues like intellectual property, the Uruguay Round negotiations produced the world's first multilateral arrangement liberalizing trade in services----the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The GATS accord comprised three elements: a framework agreement that for the first time applies trade principles like Most Favored Nation treatment, Market Access, and National Treatment to a wide variety of services industries; sectoral annexes that clarified the scope of application of trade principles to a few select sectors; and national schedules of commitments---over two thousand pages---in which signatories bound themselves to allow foreign competition in services via designated modes of supply. One of the sectoral annexes covered telecommunications services, although the sensitive question of foreign competition in basic telecommunications was left to a future negotiation. The GBT agreement, then, essentially seals the deal with respect to bringing telecommunications services fully under the global trade policy framework.
The GBT deal on basic telecommunications could have a profound impact on the shape of national markets and, by extension, the Global Information Infrastructure. But press coverage of the agreement has been rather limited, and many analysts of and stakeholders in the global telecommunications industry are just beginning to find out what the agreement covers, much less to debate what its effects could be. There are many outstanding issues that need to be addressed. For example, to what extent will implementation of the agreement affect: National regulatory policies and institutions? Objectives like interconnection and universal service? Local and long-distance competition in telephone services and other services deemed basic in the national schedules? The strategies of the major international carriers, and the prospects of smaller competitors? The Internet and other advanced networks and services? The possibilities for developing countries in the global information economy? Other regional or global telecommunications organizations and regimes?
To address these and other questions, CITI [www.ctr.columbia.edu/citi/] and CCT [www.georgetown.edu/grad/CCT] have created a special area on the Virtual Institute of Information to address issues regarding the World Trade Organization Agreement. This page includes links to biblographical information both on-line and off-line. The on-line chat on March 20 will be the first event in the series. Participants will include James Love, Consumer Protection Agency; Cynthia A. Beltz, The American Enterprise Institute; Carlos Primo Braga, The World Bank; Timothy C. Finton, The U.S. Department of State; Robert M. Frieden, Pennsylvania State University; Gary Hufbauer, IIE; Tim Kelly, ITU; Eli M. Noam, CITI; Ben A. Petrazzini, the International Telecommunication Union; Lee Tuthill, WTO; Anthony Rutkowski, General Magic; Shalini Venturelli, American University.
The on-line seminar will consist of a web-based chat program. To utilize this, you should be using Netscape 2.0 or higher. For the first half hour, the panelists will discuss their viewpoints on the issues. From 10:30am EST on, the discussion will be open to the public, with Dr. Drake moderating. If you wish to follow the discussion without participating, there will be an option to read the transcript as the discussion proceeds. There will also be a forum available to post ideas and continue longer-term discussions. If anyone has working papers on this topic that they would like to submit to be part of the bibliography, please send email to vii@ctr.columbia.edu. ```
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