1.4.2 Specific WTO Telecom Sector Commitments

This section provides further information about the WTO rules applicable to the authorization of telecommunication services, a subject introduced earlier in this module.

In addition to the general Articles of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the schedules to the GATS contain additional trade commitments by individual member countries concerning specific services, including basic telecommunications services. As part of the 1997 Agreement on Basic Telecommunications, 69 developed and developing countries, representing more than 90 percent of the global telecommunications markets, filed national schedules of commitments to liberalize or maintain open telecommunications markets. As part of their schedules of commitments, most of these countries agreed to adhere to certain telecommunications regulatory practices set out in the WTO Regulation Reference Paper (the “Reference Paper”). Since then, other WTO signatories have filed schedules of commitments governing trade in the telecommunications sector, which generally included a commitment to adhere to the Reference Paper.  As of February 2008, 107 WTO members have made commitments to open some or all segments of their telecommunications markets to foreign suppliers, and 80 members have committed themselves to the Reference Paper.  The Reference Paper has had a major impact on the reform of telecommunications regulation, including authorization practice reform, in many countries.