The European Union (EU) and the US have seemingly buried the hatchet over telecoms liberalization differences, and agreed to work towards a telecom accord within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by early next year. According to a joint statement: Today we have confirmed our joint commitment to working actively together on the negotiations in the WTO Group on Basic Telecommunications with a view to obtaining a satisfactory agreement by February 15, 1997. It continued: We are instructing our officials to continue to cooperate and to join efforts with all other participants in the negotiations…to ensure that commitments are made by December 1996 that will be regarded by the US and EU as sufficient to amount to a critical mass, so that by the time of the Singapore Ministerial Conference it will be clear that after further negotiations, an agreement can be concluded by Feb. 15. The announcement offers some hope for the WTO telecoms talks which collapsed dramatically in May when the US pulled out at the eleventh hour, claiming that the liberalization offers of other world nations were unsatisfactory, especially those of Asia and parts of Europe. Those feelings were voiced again recently when acting US Trade Representative, Charlene Barshefsky, argued that some European countries were backsliding on promises to liberalize their telecoms markets. Those singled out for particular mention by Barshefsky included Spain, which says it will not liberalize its market until 2003; France which has yet to pledge that France Telecom will not stifle competition, and Germany, where the parliament recently failed to pass telecoms market reforms.
