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24 See William J. Drake and Kalypso Nicolaidis, 'Ideas, Interests, and
Institutionalization', International Organization, 46(1) 43. A number of
conceptual and analytical difficulties emerge when dealing with services
as tradeable commodities. These include, (1) how should/can informa-
tion be identified and/or measured?. (2) What is the relationship of time
to the value of an information commodity?. (3) When is the flow of
information across borders trade and when is it not?. And (4) how
should/can information labor be classified/assessed? See Sandra Bra-
man, 'Trade and Information Policy,' Media, Culture and Society,
12(3) (July 1990) 367-8.
25 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Report
by the High Level Group on Trade and Related Problems (Paris:
OECD, 1973).
26 A formative work in this literature is Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-
Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting (New York: Basic
Books, 1973).
27 Drake and Nicolaidis, 'Ideas, Interests, and Institutionalization,' pp. 45--6.
28 US Government, US National Study on Trade in Services: A Submission
by the US Government to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1984). This study was
prepared in 1983.
29 Stated objectives included the establishment of a 'common framework
applicable to all [service sub-]sectors with specific rules set out for
[each],' ibid., p. 8.
30 Unnamed delegate quoted in Drake and Nicolaidis, 'Ideas, Interests,
and Institutionalization,' p. 57.
31 US Department of Commerce, 'Long-Range Goals in International
Telecommunications and Information,' (unpublished, NTIA, 1983) pp.
20-1.
32 The Report also recommends 'the integration of telecommunications
and information services into the overall US trade effort, by identifying
the barriers encountered by US suppliers and users of such services
abroad and vigorously seeking their reduction,' ibid., p. 21.
33 Personal interview with Emory Simon, Deputy Assistant US Trade
Representative, Office of the US Trade Representative, 9 September
1992,.Washington, DC.
34 Both submissions quoted in Karl P. Sauvant, International Transactions
in Services (Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1986) p. 204.
35 United States Government, Interagency Working Group on Transbor-
der Data Flow, 'Communications and Transborder Data Flows in the
US: A Background Paper' (unpublished mimeo: Interagency Working
Group on TDF, 1985) p. 120.
36 ibid., pp. 121-2.
37 Foreign direct investment traditionally has been the sine qua non of
transnational service activities in that most services are produced and
consumed simultaneously, often in one place. The pre-eminent role of
telecommunications in extending service activities beyond this spatial
limitation has been cited as a key direct stimulant to the general growth
of service activities. Karl Sauvant outlines several reasons for the