WASHINGTON-In a follow-up to a recent hearing on the proposed Deutsche Telekom AG takeover of VoiceStream Wireless Corp., the House telecom subcommittee last week sent a letter to Charlene Barshefsky, the United States trade representative, asking her to explain why USTR has apparently not pushed our trading partners-including Germany-to divest themselves of their ownership interests in incumbent telephone companies.
“The comments of the USTR representative at the hearing raised more questions for us than answers. The USTR representative, for example, could not identify a single instance in which USTR had raised the issue of government ownership with our trading partners. This troubles us because it suggests that USTR does not regard government ownership as a priority,” said Reps. Tom Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House telecom subcommittee, and subcommittee vice-chairman Michael Oxley (R-Ohio).
The letter followed answers given by the USTR representative, which stunned the audience, at the Sept. 7 hearing.
Tauzin, a self-professed free trader, led the grilling of a panel of government witnesses. He was especially concerned when the USTR representative said after a long series of questions that he had not spoken with the German government about diluting its stake in DT and then after even more questioning said Europe was not in his portfolio of responsibility.
To get to the bottom of the matter, the letter requests that Barshefsky respond by Thursday to a series of questions about what, if any, efforts have been made to get countries to dilute their stakes in telecom companies.
Such dilution, the members said, is necessary to make sure the impartial regulator required by the World Trade Organization Basic Telecommunications Agreement is impartial.
“A telecom regulator cannot be truly `impartial’ if it retains interest in the incumbent telephone company. And we should not pretend otherwise,” the letter says.
The DT/VoiceStream deal has received considerable congressional scrutiny because the German government owns 58 percent of DT, although this will be reduced after the deal closes.
Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, has led the charge against the deal.
Hollings is the sponsor of Senate legislation-both a free-standing bill and language in the commerce, state, justice appropriations bill awaiting Senate action-that would forbid the Federal Communications Commission from approving a license transfer to any company that is more than 25 percent foreign-government owned.
Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking members of the House Commerce committee and telecom subcommittee respectively, have authored companion legislation in the House.
