미국-멕시코 통신서비스 분쟁과 한국-멕시코 FTA 통신서비스협상

The FTA negotiations between Korea and Mexico (KOMEX FTA) have been resumed recently. In April 2004, the WTO panel issued its dispute settlement decision in the first telecom case involving Mexico's commitments in the sector of telecom services, which raised various rudimentary questions on the definition of cross-border supply of international telecom services, the relationship between the Reference Paper and international interconnection, the meaning of cost-oriented interconnection, the scope of anti-competitive practices and so on. These issues and questions will be discussed in the process of the KOMEX FTA negotiations on telecom services. Therefore, a careful but critical review on the key findings of the panel will help telecom policy makers as well as telecom negotiators to comprehend how to better comply with WTO obligations regarding basic telecom services. In this context, this paper is designed to analyze the major findings, offer some criticism of them and clarify many important WTO obligations regarding basic telecom services in a way that assists telecom negotiators and telecom regulatory authorities to better understand the meaning of the GATS Annex on Telecommunications and the Reference Paper and different positions thereon of WTO member countries including Mexico, the U.S., the EU, Brazil, Australia, and Japan.