7:28 AM Feb 26, 1996
US IMPROVES TELECOM OFFERS
Geneva 26 Feb (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The United States tabled Monday at the basic telecommunication talks at the WTO a revised offer to provide for unrestricted market access and national treatment for foreign companies in the US "local" telecom market and allowing 100% foreign indirect ownership of common carrier radio licences. The US revised offer is the result of recently approved US telecommunication legislation liberalizing its own internal market and enabling national operators like AT & T and local "bell" companies to compete in each other's market. The Negotiating Group on Basic Telecommunications (NGBT) opened a week of talks Monday, devoted to a number of bilateral meetings and to be topped at the end of the week with a meeting of the NGBT to review the state of negotiations. These are to be concluded no later than 30 April. In a press statement issued in Geneva, the Deputy US Trade Representative, Jeffrey Leng, said that the revised US offers were contingent upon agreement by "a critical mass" of WTO members to provide market access and national treatment for basic telecommunication services, as also contingent upon agreement on "acceptable pro-competitive regulatory disciplines." The improved offer tabled by the US, Leng said, includes unrestricted market access and national treatment for foreign companies in the US local 'telecommunications' market; an intention to roll back existing restrictions on competition at the local level, in keeping with the new US telecommunications law that was signed by President Clinton on 8 February; and foreign ownership of common carrier radio licenses to be open to 100% foreign indirect ownership of these licenses.