Page 157 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

Liberalization and the Ascendancy of Trade 147

ultimately will make such services indistinguishable relative to the free
flow of other GATT -sanctioned enhanced or value-added services. As
such, the effectiveness of current regulatory definitions based on past
technological distinctions will continue to diminish largely as a result
of ongoing developments in digital transmission. While the new
58
GAIT Telecommunications Annex covers enhanced and value-
added services, a group of twenty, mostly OECD countries, including
the US, have committed themselves to negotiate a complementary
basic services agreement. 59
In light of the developments outlined above, by the end of 1980s the
ITU had become, in the words of R. Brian Woodrow, decidedly
'schizophrenic':

On the one hand, there was a desire to project a positive image in
support of the Uruguay Round negotiations and their objectives
and to assist-telecommunications liberalization. On the other
hand, there was also irritation and concern that these negotiations
could lead to a services trade regime which might disrupt
established patterns of international telecommunications
regulation and challenge the authority of the Union in certain
areas. 60

In 1989, Secretary General Butler came to believe that the survival
of the Union required it to cooperate with the GATT process. As a
result, ITU procedures - traditionally dominated by nation-state offi-
cials and interested hardware manufacturers - were increasingly
opened up to business, industrial and scientific organizations as a
means of directly incorporating the interests of telecommunication
distributors and users into the regulatory process. In 1989, a High-
Level Committee was established to review the ITU's mandate and
activities and to recommend structural reforms. Its report, completed
in 1991, included the recommendation that a new Bureau for Tele-
communications Development be established in order to include, for
the first time, officials from transnational corporations to act as
advisors on LDC development and investment strategies. 61
Butler's successor, Pekka Tarjanne (elected in 1989), has expressed
support for institutional cooperation between the Union and the
GAIT. His speeches convey a belief that TNC-based pressures will
compel the ITU to reform itself so as not to be a barrier to the
changes taking place in an increasingly liberalized international eco-
nomy. In two speeches made in January and February 1990, Tarjanne