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  3. World Trade Organization Director-general Renato Ruggiero predicted that the WTO would boost global incomes by ＄1 trillion in th

World Trade Organization Director-general Renato Ruggiero predicted that the WTO would boost global incomes by ＄1 trillion in th

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问题     World Trade Organization Director-general Renato Ruggiero predicted that the WTO would boost global incomes by ＄1 trillion in the next ten years. The pact paves the way for more foreign investment  and competition in telecom markets. Many governments are making telecom deregulation a priority  and making it easier for outsiders to enter the telecmmunication business.
    The pace varies widely. The U.S.  and Britain are well ahead of the pack, while Thailand won’ t be fully open until 2006. Only 20% of the ＄ 601 billion world market is currently open to competition. That should jump to about 75% in a couple of years-largely due to the Telecom Act in the U. S. last year that deregulated local markets, the opening up of the European Union’ s markets from Jan. 1, 1998 and the deregulation in Japan. The WTO deal now provides a forum for the inevitable disputes along the way. It is also symbolic: the first major trade agreement of the post-industrial  age. Instead of being obsessed with textile quotas, the WTO pact is proof that governments are realizing  that in an information age, telecom is the oil and steel of economies in the future. Businesses around the world are already spending more in total on telecom services than they do on oil.
    Consumers, meanwhile, can look forward to a future of lower prices—by some estimates, international  calling rates should drop 80% over several years—and better service. Thanks in part to the vastly increased call volume carded by the fiber-optic cables that span the globe today, calling half a world away already costs little more than telephoning next door. The monopolies can no longer set high prices for international calls in many countries. In the U. S. , the world’ s most fiercely competitive  long distance market, frequent callers since last year have been paying about 12 cents a minute to call Britain, a price not much more than domestic rates.
    The new competitive environment on the horizon means more opportunities for companies from the U.S. and U. K. in particular because they have plenty of practice at the rough-and-tumble of free markets. The U. S. lobbied hard for the WTO deal, confident that its firms would be big beneficiaries  of more open markets. Britain bas been deregulated since 1984 but will see even more competition  than before: in December, the government issued 45 new international licenses to join British Telecom so that it will become a strong competitor in the international market. However, the once-cosseted industry will get rougher worldwide. Returns on capital will come down. Risks will go up. That is how free ,markets work. It will look like any other business.
We can reasonably conclude from the passage that______.
选项 A、the world telecom market has been fully explored since the signing of the WTO pact
B、telecom companies of the U.S. and U. K. will undoubtedly dominate the world telecom market
C、many governments have granted a great investment in their telecom business
D、the WTO pact means tougher competition for telecom companies and gentler price for callers
答案D
解析 文中第一段，作者谈到该条约paves the way for more foreign investment and competition，暗示了电信公司将会面临更大竞争，第三段作者谈到了现今电信不再是垄断行业，话费因此就大大降低，并列举了美国长途话费仅仅12美分一分钟，由此可判断该条约会导致通信费用降低，选项D正确。
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