Page 158 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

148 Communication, Commerce and Power

suggested that international telecommunications should now be con-
sidered by ITU officials as 'tools for trade. ' 62
The internal reorganization of the ITU and its direct participation
in GATT services negotiations led Union officials to endorse a pro-
spective GATT agreement. At the Union's Nice Plenipotentiary in
April 1991, its High-Level Committee reported that,

Although the purposes and approach of the GATS and the ITU
are different, ... they are complementary. While there is likely to
be some overlapping or 'grey' areas between the two, we do not
foresee any major or fundamental conflict or incompatibility. The
ITU is evolving to provide for an increasing range and variety of
networks, services and participants, and to work with new
organizations concerned with the provlSlon and use of
telecommunications. It is working in an increasingly liberal
environment, and seeking to promote innovation and efficiency
.... The philosophy and spirit of the ITU's evolution are, therefore,
not fundamentally different from those emerging in GATS. It is
understood that the latest draft Annex on Trade in
Telecommunication Services recognizes the role of the ITU and
the needs of developing countries. There is no reason, therefore,
why the ITU and GATT should not continue to proceed along
similar paths. 63

In 1993, the ITU announced that it was to undertake structural
changes in keeping with its commitment to become more 'market
orientated.' Rather than making frequency allocations at ITU confer-
ences, business and nation-state officials are now directly involved in
the allocation process. Union expenditures have been reduced and
personnel eliminated in part through the creation of industry advisory
panels. According to Thomas Irmer, the Director of the ITU's Co-
ordinating Committee on International Telephone & Telecommunica-
tions (to be consolidated under the plan with the International Radio
Consultative Committee), these and other reforms aim to make the
Union more 'businesslike' and 'market oriented.' 64
As for UN-based efforts to establish a New World Information and
Communication Order, 'the NWICO, as a major international policy
debate, is dead.' 65 UNESCO, for instance, under Director General
Fredico Mayor of Spain, has even sanctioned American free flow of
information principles despite the fact that the US remains a non-
member.66 As with relatively developed countries, many LDCs now