U.S. Poised to Accept Global Telecom Pact

A top U.S. negotiator signaled Friday that Washington is prepared to agree to a global pact opening up the $600-billion worldwide telecommunications industry to greater competition.

“We have a good possibility of success,” Deputy Trade Representative Jeffrey Lang told reporters as the World Trade Organization’s long-running telecommunications negotiations neared a Saturday deadline. “We are making progress and can see the way forward.”

European Union Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan said ministers from the 15 EU member states, who met after the WTO session to discuss the package of offers involving 61 countries, would support the proposed deal.

“The agreement as a whole is a huge success for the WTO. We feel the benefits to world trade will be enormous,” Brittan said.

The telecommunications talks are aimed at opening one of the world’s most heavily regulated industries to competition. An agreement would roll back many national laws restricting foreign ownership of telephone companies and limit local phone monopolies’ ability to keep out competitors.

The results would be to slash telephone costs for ordinary people and businesses around the globe and give a major boost to the telecommunications equipment industry. But the U.S. has been holding out for more liberal rules than most other nations want.

The foreign-ownership issue has been at the center of the final round of negotiations. The Clinton administration has offered to raise the U.S. foreign-ownership cap to 49%, or even 100%, if other nations bring comparable offers to the negotiating table. Currently, the U.S. cap is 20% to 25%, depending on the companies involved.

The talks have enormous implications for telecommunications companies, which are already expanding globally in an effort to provide multinational customers with advanced voice and data services. For instance, Sprint Corp. has teamed up with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, which collectively own 20% of the No. 3 U.S. long-distance company.

But many nations have been reluctant to open up an industry that has often served as a cash cow for governments and a major source of jobs, and is also important to national security.

Negotiators set another meeting in Geneva today at which diplomats from all participating countries are likely to say whether they formally accept the package.

Officials in Washington said Acting Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky will call a news conference during the day, apparently to announce the final U.S. decision.

Brittan joined officials from other trading powers in urging the United States--vital for a pact as it is the world’s largest single telecommunications market--to not walk away as it did from an earlier bid last April.

“What is on the table amounts to a massive liberalization of the world telecommunication market that it would be crazy not to grab with both hands,” he told a news conference.