European Commission (EC) urged State Dept. Fri. to be mindful of ...
European Commission (EC) urged State Dept. Fri. to be mindful of U.S. obligations under General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) when reviewing proposed merger transactions of Deutsche Telekom (DT), VoiceStream and Powertel. EC stipulated its concerns in communique…
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to State Dept. Citing U.S. commitments under World Trade Organization (WTO) basic telecom agreement, communique said EC had “serious concerns” on some comments received by FCC concerning companies’ license transfer applications of companies. In particular, EC referred to concerns raised by Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.). It urged FCC not to heed requests that it should consider German govt.’s ownership in DT or DT’s market-opening activities in Germany. “The European Union reserves its right to take any appropriate course of action should the FCC adopt such requests, and would oppose any action that would undermine the U.S. WTO commitments,” EC warned State Dept. It said market access “cannot be conditioned on the level of commitments in the originating country of the supplier or on the way these commitments are implemented.”