Of major concern to United States position and policy in the telecommunications and information areas is "transborder data flow," the transferring of computer stored data between nations. Many European nations, including France, Austria, and West Germany, have enacted laws regulating the flow of information leaving the country where it would disrupt privacy. The bulk of automated data bases are located in the United States, which completely controls or manipulates most data exchanges between the U.S. and its partners. The U.S. is concerned that these protection laws, particularly those extended to "legal" persons such as corporations and institutions, will disrupt commerce and put American remote data processing at a disadvantage. Privacy protection for a country's citizens thus doubles as protection for its domestic computer industries. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, representing 24 industrialized countries, has drafted guidelines for maximum standards of privacy protection to remove unjustified obstacles to transborder information flow, particularly of personal data. In the U.S., development of sound international communications policy has been disrupted by attention to domestic communications, although measures are pending in Congress. The U.S. delegation to a meeting of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade will propose making services subject to agreements now governing commodity trade in the hope of guarding against further international constraints on American information services. (HTH)