The changing environment: Multidimensional issues

Telecommunications are now a vital determinant of national and world prosperity, but the speed of their development in the 1990s depends crucially on the success of efforts to establish global standards for connectivity. In this Comment the former Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union argues that the international standard-setting bodies face a major challenge to produce results in time to facilitate the current round of negotiations in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.