Proceedings of the Workshop - United Nations Office for Outer ...

POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS, INCLUDING LEGALCONFLICT RESOLUTION IN EXPANDING SPACE COMMERCIALIZATION185The World Trade Organization (WTO) agreementreached on 15 February 1997 on the liberalization ofinternational trade in telecommunications services isgenerally viewed as a significant landmark in thehistory o f international trade negotiations. Theagreement itself is based upon 55 so-called schedules ofcommitments which some 70 WTO member states(counting the offer of the 15 member states of theEuropean Union as one offer) entered into. Theseschedules contain specific commitments to open certainsectors o f the national telecommunications market toforeign competition. They are annexed to the FourthProtocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services(GATS) which was open for acceptance until 30November 1997. The commitments were to enter intoforce on 1 January 1998; however, the implementationwas delayed because 15 o f the signatories had notratified the agreement in time. It was then agreed thatthe agreement should enter into force on 5 February1998. Thus, the GATS plus other relevant documents,such as the Telecommunications Annex, which emergedfrom the completion in 1994 of the Uruguay Round ofGATT are of central importance for putting the resultsof the 1997 telecom agreement into a proper legalperspective.In addition, there are other related specific sectoragreements, such as the agreement in 1997 to removetariffs on information technology products, and thesubsequent 1997 agreement to liberalize trade infinancial services. These agreements are viewed asbeing more than mere trade arrangements. They areseen as instruments to progress the flow of technologyand information around the world and to contribute tothe building o f the new infrastructure o f the informationage, like the development o f railways and shipping inthe last century provided the infrastructure for theindustrial age.The GATSBefore the acceptance of GATS, the regulation o f tradein services had been limited to bilateral treaties dealingwith the treatment o f nationals of the respective partiesor to regional or bilateral agreements constituting freetrade areas or customs unions. Services were includedin the GATT negotiations because o f the growingeconomic importance o f the sector. In terms of value oftrade, services already represent a far greaterproportion than for instance agriculture (world exportsin 1990 amounted to US$ 4,300 billion, of which 60per cent were in manufactures, 19 per cent in services,1 1 per cent in mining and only 10 per cent in agriculture).Today, over 20 per cent of world trade and 60 percent of world production are in the area covered by theGATS.The GATS is built upon several layers. First, thereis a framework agreement which applies to any servicein any sector, except a service provided in the exerciseof governmental authority either on a commercial basisor in competition with other suppliers. Some of thebasic provisions follow the corresponding provisions inGATT law on the trade in goods. Second, there arevarious types of commitments in national schedules totake care of the fact that most barriers to internationaltrade in services do not arise from border measures (asin the case of goods) but from domestic regulations,affecting (and discriminating), for example, tourism,foreign consultants or construction workers, or theoperation o f subsidiaries o f foreign banks on theterritory of the receiving state. The GATS envisagessuccessive rounds o f negotiations on the progressiveliberalization of trade in services. Third, individual(more sensitive) service sectors have found specialtreatm en t, in clu d in g fin an cial services,telecommunications, air transport services, maritimetransport services and movement of natural personsproviding services.The preamble o f GATS recognizes the growingimportance o f trade in services for the growth anddevelopment of the world economy and aims toestablish a multilateral framework of principles andrules for trade in services with a view to the expansiono f such trade under conditions of transparency andprogressive liberalization and as a means of promotingthe economic growth of all trading partners and thedevelopment o f developing countries. It mentions theneed for progressively higher levels of liberalization oftrade in services to be achieved through successiverounds of multilateral negotiations, but also recognizesthe right of states to regulate, and to introduce new