Abstract
Through bilateral FTA negotiations in the Asia and Pacific regions, there has been an increase in the number of FTAs containing ICT provisions stipulating regulations for ICT markets. The United States has been aggressively promoting FTAs ICT provisions reflecting its domestic rules. As a result, U.S. and other industrialized countries have different bilateral FTA ICT provisions. It has been argued that diver-sification of bilateral FTA provisions should block many countries’ sharing of common FTA rules and they should come to need modifications of already concluded bilateral FTA provisions. However, the U.S. has succeeded to conclude FTAs with other industrialized countries omitting the rule options that are beneficial only to one of the parties. That has been possible because the U.S. has had many mutually beneficial rule options. As far as industrialized countries could leave such kind of differences, the U.S. approach would not block but even promote many countries’ sharing of common FTA rules.
