Mexico Revises Telecom Regs

The Mexican Parliament on Friday passed new legislation to comply with World Trade Organization recommendations over implementation of its telecommunications services (WTD, 1/17/05).

The new regulations allow telecommunications suppliers in Mexico to operate on a resale basis, rather than restricting operation to only a facilities basis. Under the new regulations, US companies will be able to provide telecommunications services in Mexico on a wholly owned basis, according to the US Trade Representative's office.

Last year, the United States and Mexico agreed to settle an April 2004 WTO dispute settlement case. The main features of the agreement worked out last year include * removal of the Mexican Law relating to the proportional return system, uniform tariff system and the requirement that the carrier with the greatest proportion of outgoing traffic to a country negotiate the settlement rate on behalf of all Mexican carriers for that country; the introduction of resale-based international telecommunication services in Mexico by 2005, in a manner consistent with Mexican law and US recognition that Mexico will continue to restrict International Simple Resale * use of leased lines to carry cross-border calls * to prevent the unauthorized carriage of telecommunications traffic.

The annual volume of traffic between the two countries is over six billion minutes, representing services worth over $2 billion.

On a related issued, a Mexican official told WTD that Mexico City will likely challenge the latest ruling by a WTO dispute settlement panel against the country's taxes on high-fructose corn syrup (WTD, 8/9/05).