RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE S/NGBT/W/15
31October 1995
ORGANIZATION(95-3392)
Negotiating Group onBasic Telecommunications
High-Level Meeting, 6October 1995
Statement byMr.W.Lavorel, Deputy Director-General,
reporting onthestatus ofthenegotiations
Thisistheninth meeting oftheNegotiating Group, which began work inMay1994. Bilateral
negotiating sessions began inFebruary, andevery meeting sincethenhasbeenaccompanied byaweek
ofbilateral meetings. TheGroup agreed inApril thatdraftoffers ofcommitments should besubmitted
by31July. Asoftoday, however, onlytenoffers havebeensubmitted, byAustralia, Canada, the
European Communities, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, NewZealand, theSlovak Republic, Switzerland
andtheUnited States. Wehavereceived indications thatfurther offers canbeexpected veryshortly.
Itisunderstood thattheseareinitial offers, subject tofurther negotiation andconditional uponthequality
ofother offers resulting fromnegotiations. Some oftheparticipants whohavesubmitted offers have
indicated thattheyhope tobeabletoimprove them asaresult offurther bilateral discussions and,
insome cases, ofadditional reforms nowunder wayintheirdomestic telecommunications regimes.
Since theSeptember meeting oftheGroup, oneadditional government, Iceland, hasjoined
theGroup asafullparticipant. There arenowtwenty-eight fullparticipants, representing forty-two
governments. Thecountries concerned account forover 90percent ofworld revenue for
telecommunications. Thirty governments attend meetings oftheGroup asobservers. Most ofthem
areWTO Members: sixaregovernments intheprocess ofaccession totheWTO. Observer status
hasalsobeengranted tosixorganizations.
When theGroup began itswork lastyear, itformulated aquestionnaire onmarket structure,
competition andregulatory issues innational telecoms regimes. Thirty-three responses havesofar
beenreceived, including thatoftheCzech Republic, received today. Ofthese, fourareresponses
fromobservers. Agreatdealofinformation hasthusbeenexchanged between participants. Asmany
reforms arebeing undertaken concurrent withthebasic telecommunications negotiations, anumber
ofparticipants havealsoprovided theGroup withupdates andsupplementary information totheirinitial
questionnaire responses. Inthismanner, theGroup hasbeenkeptabreast ofdomestic developments
inthesector.
TheGroup hasdiscussed anumber oftechnical andconceptual issues. Most ofthese relate
toregulatory measures andhowtodealwiththem inthecontext ofthenegotiations. They include
licensing, interconnection, competition safeguards, independent regulatory bodies, frequency and
numbering,standardsandtypeapproval,transparency,tariffsandaccountingrates,terminationservices,
rights ofway,anduniversal service. Participants haveconsidered whether certain ofthese measures
areadequately addressed bygeneral provisions oftheGATS andtheAnnex onTelecommunications
orwhether theyshould beaddressed inschedules ofcommitments orthrough theelaboration ofgeneral
rulesorunderstandings. Anumber ofpapers havebeensubmitted bydelegations tohelpadvance these
discussions.
./.S/NGBT/W/15
Page2
InSeptember, atimetable forcompletion ofthenegotiations wasagreed. Itprovides formonthly
meetings fromnowuntiltheApril 30deadline. Eachmeeting istobepreceded byaweek ofbilateral
negotiations. Thetimetable setsagoalofcompleting work onregulatory andscheduling issues by
December ofthisyear. Italsoindicates thatrevised draftoffers aretobesubmitted inJanuary 1996
withthetabling ofdraftschedules tofollow inFebruary. InMarch 1996, finalschedules willbedue
and,inApril, participants willdrafttheProtocol bywhich these commitments would beannexed to
theexisting schedules oftheGeneral Agreement onTariffs andTrade.
There isthusagreat dealofwork todoinaveryshort time. Itwilldemand intellectual and
political commitment ofaveryhighorder. WeintheSecretariat willdoourutmost tofacilitate your
work. Some ofyouwillhaveseen, inspeeches thattheDirector General hasmade onthesubject this
week, thatheidentifies thisasthehighest priority andgreatest challenge nowfacing theWTO. This
isnotjustbecause ofthegreat economic benefits thatwillflow directly from liberalization of
telecommunications, butbecause ofitsindirect benefits -thehugemultiplier effect, interms ofhuman
welfare, thatworldwide access tomodern communications iscapable ofproducing. Ihopethatyour
Group, andthismeeting, willplayabigpartinbringing thatabout.