| Abstract: | ABSTRACT From 1982 to 1997, the balance of trade deficit for U.S. telecommunications services increased tenfold. In the years since that time, the increase became less dramatic and eventually began to decline due to global deregulation and privatization efforts, as well as to multilateral agreements forged by most major countries. The countries of Asia contributed greatly to this increase and have also been examples of the reversal of the balance of trade deficit in recent years. Our analysis identifies partner reciprocity as a core issue of the international long-distance industry. We integrate various literature streams to better understand the issue of international reciprocity in service industries. Furthermore, we identify the trends in global telecom that explain the historical imbalanced reciprocity period between 1984 and 1997 and the more recent period where a more balanced reciprocity has existed between the United States and the Asian region. |
