Page 146 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

136 Communication, Commerce and Power

'they [Butler's ITU executive] could set standards that would specific-
ally benefit the developing countries at the expense of the devel-
oped.'17 Michael Gardner reported to Congress that this 'negative
trend' in the ITU warranted a reconsideration of US efforts to 'main-
tain the staus quo' and to investigate pursuing a more proactive
position: 'So while the US must try to assert more effective leadership
within the ITU ... we should not fail to seriously consider compatible
alternatives to the ITU.' 18
The dominant position held by the US public and private sectors in
international communications meant that the ITU could not exist
without America's direct support. The Nairobi conference produced
not. only the belief that the Union's reform was necessary but also that
US threats should be used in the process. But instead of confronting
the ITU with specific demands and a formal withdrawal deadline, as
had been done with UNESCO, US officials opted to reform the
Union using indirect methods. Gardner, for example, suggested that
through expanded US private and public sector aid in the education
of foreign telecommunication officials, 'we [can] build bridges to these
people so they do not vote against us in ... important forums' . 19 As a
consequence, unlike UNESCO, the ITU played a substantive role in
the ongoing maintenance of an orderly international communications
environment, and AT&T, IBM, American Express and other large US
corporations made innumerable representations to Reagan adminis-
tration officials explaining their ongoing dependency on an orderly
international telecommunications regime. 20 Less direct methods of
refonn thus constituted the only feasible option given this state of
essential interdependence. In addition to educational and other devel-
opment programs, US officials soon discovered that by placing issues
directly affecting established ITU activities on the international trade
agenda, some degree of cooperation between the Union and the
GATT process could be attained.
The effectiveness of this GAIT-based ITU reform strategy became
apparent at the Union's 1988 World Administrative Telegraph and
Telephone Conference (W ATTC-88). At this conference, a conflict
involving the technical conditions facilitating market access for service
providers and nation-state controls over domestic communications
emerged. On the one hand, delegates from the US, Britain and a
small number of other countries argued that regulations affecting
the growth of financial and other telecommunication-dependent ser-
vices should be minimal. On the other hand, delegates from mostly
less developed countries argued that the application of reforms and