RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE S/NGBT/11
22December 1995
ORGANIZATION(95-4125)
Negotiating Group onBasic Telecommunications
REPORT ONTHE MEETING OF15DECEMBER 1995
1. TheNegotiating Group onBasic Telecommunications held itseleventh meeting on
15December 1995. Theagenda forthemeeting wascontained inairgram WTO/AIR/232 of
28November 1995.
2. Regarding requests forparticipation andobserver status, theChairman announced thatthe
Philippines hadtaken adecision tojoinnegotiations asafullparticipant. Asaresult, thenumber of
fullparticipants inthenegotiations stood at321andthenumber ofparticipants withobserver status
was272.TheChairman thanked thePhilippines foritsdecision andencouraged other governments
participating asobservers alsotoconsider joining inthenegotiations asfullparticipants assoonas
possible.
3. Under theagenda itemonintroduction ofdraftoffers, newoffers wereintroduced totheGroup
byKorea andChile. Therepresentative ofHungary alsoannounced thatitsdraftofferwould beformally
submitted during theday.Thisbrought thetotalnumber ofdraftoffers submitted byparticipants thus
farto17.3
4. TheChairman invited delegations tocomment ontheprogress ofbilateral discussions held
during theweek. Many participants characterized thebilateral meetings undertaken aspositive and
saidthattheyhadseenawillingness onthepartofmany participants tomake improvements intheir
offers. Some participants noted, however, thatthere wasnotmuch timeleftforparticipants whohad
notyetmade offers todosoorforobservers toreach adecision tojoininthenegotiations. One
participant expressed thehopethat,inaspirit ofcooperation, observers would alsoagree torequests
forbilateral consultations. Other participants reaffirmed thattheyhoped toseethenegotiations conclude
successfully andonanm.f.n. basis.
1Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Cyprus, theCzech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, theEuropean Communities
andtheirMember States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom), Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, NewZealand,
Norway, thePhilippines, Poland, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, theUnited States andVenezuela.
2Bulgaria, Brunei Darussalam, theRepublic ofChina, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, ElSalvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Indonesia, Jamaica, Latvia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, South
Africa, Thailand, Trinidad &Tobago, andUnited Arab Emirates, Uruguay.
3Australia, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, theEuropean Communities anditsMember States, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Korea,
Mexico, NewZealand, Norway, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, theUnited States andVenezuela
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5. Under theagenda itemonoutstanding technical andconceptual issues, anon-paper onregulatory
principles wascirculated. Participants generally welcomed thepaper asapossible basis forfocusing
broader discussion. Itwasnoted thattheextent towhich some aspects oftheregulatory concerns,
suchasinterconnection rights, were already addressed byexisting disciplines oftheGATS andthe
Telecommunications Annex should becarefully considered. Itwasalsosuggested thatthevalue of
market access andnational treatment commitments would beenhanced byspecific clarifications such
asthose inthenon-paper. Oneparticipant suggested thatsuchprinciples should focus onoutcomes
rather thanprocesses. Itwasagreed thatparticipants would reflect further onthecontents ofthenon-
paper anddiscuss itfurther under thisagenda itematitsnextmeeting.
6. Under theagenda itemonthereview ofparticipants 'responses tothequestionnaire onbasic
telecommunications, therepresentative ofPeru, anobserver government, introduced itsresponse. The
Chairman alsoinvited anyremaining questions ontheresponses submitted atprevious meetings or
thepresentation ofanyoutstanding answers toearlier queries. Hethanked Peruforitssubmission and
encouraged other participants andobservers torespond tothequestionnaire.
7. Indiscussion onfuture work, theChairman noted thatthenextmeeting oftheGroup was
scheduled for26January andthatbilateral negotiations would beconducted during thatweek. He
emphasized theimportance ofsubmitting draftoffers bytheJanuary meeting byparticipants thathad
notyetdonesoandrecalled thatthetimetable fornegotiations alsocalled forparticipants tosubmit
revised offers inJanuary.