Formally known as the Final Act Embodying the Results
of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, 15 April 1994.
And also telecommunications policies adopted at the regional,
supra-national level by the European Union.
Members of the WTO are governments, but not necessarily
governments of independent states. It is also important to note that in
practice the European Commission represents, and negotiates in the WTO,
for the 15 member states of the European Union.
In all four modes, the following definitions apply:
"'Supply of a service' includes the production,
distribution, marketing, sale and delivery of a service" [Art. XXVIII,
§ (b)].
"'Service consumer' means any person [natural or
juridical] that receives or uses a service" [Art. XXVIII, § (i),
(j)].
"Market access"
refers to a member's optional commitments to open any of its market sectors
to the supply of service (in any of the four "modes" of supply)
by service suppliers of other members.
"National treatment"
refers to a member's optional commitment to treat service suppliers and
services of any other Member no less favourably than it treats its "own
like" services and service suppliers.
Technically, the entries in
the Schedule (other than the "additional commitments" discussed
in Part III of this summary) state the limitations on market access
and national treatment that remain in force once the member's commitments
have been implemented.
A more technical and detailed
discussion of the GATS obligations is provided, with extensive references
to the text of the Agreement, in Chapter 3.
Annex on Negotiations on
Basic Telecommunications (Legal Texts, p. 364).
New Zealand is a notable exception.
Accounting rates are the rates
of payment used when a telecommunications carrier compensates a carrier
in another country for carrying traffic to a destination in that country.
The accounting rate system is described in Briefing Report No. 3 in this
series, Michael Tyler, Global Mobile Personal Communications Systems
(Geneva, ITU, March 1995), pp. 51ff.
The notable exception being
the emergence in recent years of common telecommunication legislation within
the European Union.
Each member undertakes, by
virtue of membership in the WTO, "to accord sympathetic consideration
to and afford adequate opportunity for consultation regarding any representations
made by another member" [Understanding, Art. 4; Legal Texts,
pp. 407-408].
For example, a duopoly for
fixed service and/or cellular.
We use the general phrase
"national market", for brevity, to encompass all of the four
different "modes of supply" defined in the GATS, and explained
on pp. ES5-ES6.
Annex on Article II Exemptions
(Legal Texts, p. 352); WTO Agreement, Art. IX, § 3, 4 (Legal
Texts, pp. 11-12).
The meaning of "reasonable
prices" is of course subject to a great deal of debate, and is by
now the subject of a large body of experience and analytical expertise:
the field is reviewed in Briefing Report No. 4 in this series, Michael
Tyler et al, Interconnection: Regulatory Issues (Geneva, ITU, June
1995), chaps. 3-8.
Regulatory regimes of various
countries are analyzed and categorized in "Briefing Report No. 1":
Michael Tyler, Options for Regulatory Processes and Procedures in Telecommunications
(Geneva, ITU, May 1993).
The authors of this report
do not accept this last view. As we indicated in Briefing Report
No. 2, there are many ways to maintain and pay for universal service obligations
other than prohibiting competitive entry. Michael Tyler, Universal Service
and Innovation: Fostering Linked Goals through Regulatory Policy (Geneva,
ITU, February 1994).
Although national governments
and regulators in EU member states do already have such obligations, under
EU legislation, in respect of the regulation of EU-based companies.
In GATS terms, this is an
example of supply modes 3 or 4 or both.
Of course, NGBT Participants
are unlikely to agree to this unless, in their judgement, enough other
countries also agree to similar market-opening commitments on the basis
of MFN and national treatment.