An Arab group proposal to expand the scope of the...
An Arab group proposal to expand the scope of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) from just telecom to include information and communications technology (ICT) received strong opposition during a meeting this week of the ITU Council working group on preparations…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
for the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) in December. Submissions on possible revisions to the ITRs are being aired in the working group but have not been made to the conference. An Arab official said the definition of telecom is no longer needed because of technology advancements. The U.S., European countries, and others opposed the move, along with an Arab proposal to include processing in the treaty’s scope. The Arab official said telecom includes transmission, emission and reception, but not the computer or other gear. He said some processing is already occurring in telecommunications. Arab officials have been pressing to make the treaty more technical in nature. Many countries are pressing to keep the revisions focused on delivering a high-level framework. The U.K. said the ITU Constitution, which has precedence over the ITRs, defines telecom in a way that doesn’t include ICT. Botswana said officials at ITU’s top policy setting conference have said definitions need to be changed at a conference like WCIT, and officials in WCIT preparations are saying definitions can only be changed at ITU’s top policy-setting conference.