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DBS and the Structure of US Policy Making 119

work in conjunction with private sector interests on this project. Spero
believed that because of the strong economic growth of computer and
communication activities, and the long-established dominance of
AT&T and Comsat in leading US relations with foreign telecommu-
nications officials, US government personnel generally had neglected
this policy area. 41 Due to the rapid internationalization of corporate
information and communication activities, and the accompanying
growth of a coordinated foreign resistance to it, 'the organizational
fragmentation, the scarcity of resources, and the absence of high-level
attention' resulted in a crisis for American interests seeking to arrest
overseas opposition. The US government's fundamental problem,
according to Spero, was that 'no one is in charge. ' 42
European, Japanese and Canadian-based TNC executives became
the primary targets of American corporate efforts to modify the
perspectives of foreign governments. As service providers, some of
these overseas corporations would presumably be opposed to US
competitors in their domestic markets. To counter this, US-based
TNCs promoted the recognition of foreign corporations as service
consumers and emphasized the potential benefits available to foreign
TNCs once their access to US advertising, consultancy, financial and
other relatively advanced American-based services were established. 43
US-based interests subsequently pushed ahead of American state
officials in efforts to modify the ways in which foreigners perceived
both free flow and free trade. In this project, in the words of Karl
Sauvant, US-based TNCs forged 'a sophisticated organizational infra-
structure through which ... [their] interests ... [could] be identified,
formulated and promoted.' 44
In response to these developments, US foreign communication
policy officials themselves began to reconceptualize free flow of
information issues to involve concerns involving trade also. In 1983,
the Department of Commerce issued a report on 'Long Range Goals
in International Telecommunications and Information.' It recom-
mended that the United States 'place a high priority on the reduction
of non-tariff trade barriers affecting the telecommunications and
information industries through vigorous multilateral and bilateral
negotiations in the GATT and elsewhere, but without insisting on
rigid reciprocity.' 45 Foreshadowing revisions to Section-301 of the US
Trade and Tariff Act, the report recommended that possible amend-
ments to US trade law would protect domestic interests from 'unfair
industry-targeting practices and other anti-competitive policies of
other countries.' 46 Finally, the report recommended that an