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FTAA.soc/thm/inf/18
November 4, 2003

Original: English
English version only / Sólo en inglés

FTAA - COMMITTEE OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON THE PARTICIPATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY

 

SECOND ISSUE MEETING WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY OF THE HEMISPHERE
 

TIME WARNER
 

SUBMISSION TO THE FTAA CIVIL SOCIETY COMMITTEE MEETING ON SERVICES

SANTIAGO, CHILE. SEPTEMBER 23, 2003

 

Time Warner appreciates the opportunity to contribute to the discussion at the FTAA Civil Society Committee meeting on services. On the broad economic and political level, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will foster economic growth and opportunity, raise living standards, promote regional integration, and strengthen democracies. Services liberalization is an important aspect of achieving these goals.

In the FTAA, services trade and investment liberalization will be beneficial to all countries in the hemisphere - large and small, developed and developing - and serve as a multiplier to increase competitiveness across entire economies. At their most basic level, services are the building blocks of a market economy. Telecommunications allow us to communicate more easily via telephone and email. Legal services help companies to navigate complicated regulatory landscapes and give the force of law to commercial agreements. Accounting services help to create reliable data on which market decisions are based. Efficient distribution services allow for the quick and cost-effective movement of manufacturing inputs and agricultural goods. Innovative financial services and insurance products fund and facilitate the creation of new enterprises. Audiovisual services enhance cultural diversity and create a greater appreciation of the rich and varied values of a community. In short, without an efficient and dynamic services sector, the productive energy of a national economy in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors will be sapped and economic growth, innovation and the opportunity of cultural exchange are quickly lost.

Looking at the information technology and audiovisual services - our company’s primary business focus -- these two sectors are important sources of job creation, tax revenues and infrastructural development. For example, the networks that AOL and others in the information technology sector have helped to build across the Americas to facilitate e-commerce and information exchange have had a dynamic effect on the consumers and economies in the region. Through the internet, the cost of doing business and reaching your next customer has dropped from hundreds of dollars to mere cents. And, the local stories that Warner Bros, HBO and the rest of the audiovisual industry have told on the big-screen, the poetry put to music by Warner Music and the broader recording industry, and the CNN news coverage and stories shared across television and publishing networks has fostered a better understanding of the differences and similarities among all the peoples and governments of the Americas. This information and cultural exchange has become the important foundation upon which economic and business relationships have been forged and through which greater economic growth and opportunity can be realized.

In short, services encourage innovation, efficiency and economic opportunity. Open trade and investment regimes in services ensure wider and more informed consumer choices, better quality products and enhanced overall economic performance. Services are the one area where the potential gains from regional cooperation are large and where the benefits of such cooperation have barely been tapped. In fact, services are relative newcomers to international trade negotiations, even though their impact on economies has been long-standing. FTAA member countries, therefore, have the opportunity through the hemispheric agreement to lead by example in creating greater certainty in the sector by eliminating barriers to trade and investment in services on a negative list basis with only limited exceptions and with the standard being one of openness and non-discrimination across all sectors.

On the heels of Cancun, FTAA member countries have a unique opportunity -- to demonstrate the ability of the countries of the Americas to continue to make progress in trade with expansion of trade in services as an importance cornerstone in that effort.

 
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