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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 3101. Findings and purposes
(a) Findings
The Congress finds that -
(1) rapid growth in the world market for telecommunications
products and services is likely to continue for several decades;
(2) the United States can improve prospects for -
(A) the growth of -
(i) United States exports of telecommunications products
and services, and
(ii) export-related employment and consumer services in the
United States, and
(B) the continuance of the technological leadership of the
United States,
by undertaking a program to achieve an open world market for
trade in telecommunications products, services, and investment;
(3) most foreign markets for telecommunications products,
services, and investment are characterized by extensive
government intervention (including restrictive import practices
and discriminatory procurement practices) which adversely affect
United States exports of telecommunications products and services
and United States investment in telecommunications;
(4) the open nature of the United States telecommunications
market, accruing from the liberalization and restructuring of
such market, has contributed, and will continue to contribute, to
an increase in imports of telecommunications products and a
growing imbalance in competitive opportunities for trade in
telecommunications;
(5) unless this imbalance is corrected through the achievement
of mutually advantageous market opportunities for trade in
telecommunications products and services between the United
States and foreign countries, the United States should avoid
granting continued open access to the telecommunications products
and services of such foreign countries in the United States
market; and
(6) the unique business conditions in the worldwide market for
telecommunications products and services caused by the
combination of deregulation and divestiture in the United States,
which represents a unilateral liberalization of United States
trade with the rest of the world, and continuing government
intervention in the domestic industries of many other countries
create a need to make an exception in the case of
telecommunications products and services that should not
necessarily be a precedent for legislating specific sectoral
priorities in combating the closed markets or unfair foreign
trade practices of other countries.
(b) Purposes
The purposes of this chapter are -
(1) to foster the economic and technological growth of, and
employment in, the United States telecommunications industry;
(2) to secure a high quality telecommunications network for the
benefit of the people of the United States;
(3) to develop an international consensus in favor of open
trade and competition in telecommunications products and
services;
(4) to ensure that countries which have made commitments to
open telecommunications trade fully abide by those commitments;
and
(5) to achieve a more open world trading system for
telecommunications products and services through negotiation and
provision of mutually advantageous market opportunities for
United States telecommunications exporters and their subsidiaries
in those markets in which barriers exist to free international
trade.
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