Page 129 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

118 Communication, Commerce and Power

and development funding enabled American corporations to hold a
dominant position in these fields. One of the most diligent companies
35
aspiring to raise public and private sector awareness of the emerging
economic importance of international information-based services, and
the reforms required to capitalize on the relative strengths of US
companies in this area, was American Express. In 1982, its executives
36
were primarily concerned with the general issue of transborder data
flows. Amidst the emerging recognition that different kinds of infor-
mation were or could become valuable commodities, foreign nation-
state officials became increasingly concerned with developing the abil-
ity to control domestic electronic information movements. These were
usually related to their goal of protecting domestic industries and/or
the desire to tax these new commodity flows. Because of these emer-
ging overseas efforts to treat information-based services like material
commodities, American Express senior vice president Joan Edelman
37
Spero recommended that 'Washington must work to develop an inter-
national regime to preserve the free flow of information through agreed
international trade rules. ' 38
As a result of the emerging discrepancy between international com-
munications and domestic service sector capacities, US-based TNCs
orchestrated a global 'consciousness-raising' campaign. 39 American
Express and others recognized that the United States was unlikely to
reform foreign attitudes toward information-based services through a
unilateral attempt to reform existing international institutions. Spero,
for instance, ~ote that to be successful, Americans had to convince
foreign governments that a free flow of information was in their long-
term economic interest also. This would be possible only through a
concerted effort to promote the righteousness of neo-liberal trade
ideals concerning this particular sector. According to Spero:

countries should recognize that liberalization of trade in
communications and information products and services will
provide the same benefits as liberalization of trade in goods.
Furthermore, lifting [data flow] restrictions will contribute to the
expansion of trade in goods and services. Finally, liberalization
will be in the interest of countries seeking to export information
goods and services to the US market, where signs of protectionism
are also beginning to emerge. 40

Due to the fragmented character of intra-state policy making agen-
cies, the United States lacked the structural framework needed to