In November the United States, European Communities See footnote 1 and Slovak Republic tabled new offers, the first breakthrough since thenegotiations collapsed in April 1996. A number of participants say they expect to announce improvements or to table new offers either before or during the Singapore meeting, or by the time intensive negotiations resume on 15 January. In many cases, they represent liberalisation and deregulation policies introduced in countries all over the world. Once agreed the commitments would be binding. The objective of the negotiations is both to improve the content of the existing offers, and to have more countries make commitments.
Telecommunications are now a vital part of almost all business transactions.
The telecoms markets will survive failure in the WTO talks. But success could have a considerable impact on the costs, prices and efficiency of the sector and of all other industries, and on investors' confidence about competitive opportunities. The present negotiations are about new or improved commitments to open up or keep open basic telecoms markets. The principles defining how this is to be achieved have already been agreed. It also requires participating countries to make their regulations transparent, including clear statements of prices charged for use of networks.