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The US is facing a number of trade barriers in the telecommunication sector from India and China, a top Obama administration official has said.
“Barriers to trade in telecommunications-related goods and services disproportionately affect US suppliers, given our strong competitive position in these sectors,” US trade representative Mike Froman had said yesterday after the release of the annual 1377 review report.
The Congressional mandated report details the operation and effectiveness of telecommunication trade agreements.
“We have made important progress this year in advancing market liberalisation in this sector, though we continue to see the emergence of new barriers data flows and other localisation requirements,” he said.
VOIP services
The report among other things mentions the ongoing restrictions on the provision of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in China and India.
It expresses concerns about undue restrictions on the ability of US satellite service suppliers to provide satellite transmission capacity to customers in both China and India.
It also mentions the progress in the US telecommunications suppliers’ ability to obtain competitive access to facilities in India where submarine cables connect to the Indian terrestrial network.
New barriers
Noting the emergence of troubling new and potential barriers to trade, the report said the government of Pakistan has not fully addressed the efforts by local participants to create a cartel for the provision of international calls, limiting opportunities for the US telecommunication companies to provide this service in Pakistan.
The European Union has proposed to create an Europe-only cloud computing network; and Turkey has blocked numerous Internet-enabled services, affecting legitimate US businesses, the report said.
“India currently only allows VoIP to be used in closed user groups (CUGs), which is a communications network between branches of a single company”, it said.
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