Canada makes progress in lining up support for global trade deal on culture

The collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle hasn't hindered Canada in its attempt to negotiate a comprehensive and multilateral trade treaty for culture. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Heritage minister Sheila Copps have been meeting with their counterparts from the Americas, Europe and other regions to drum up support for a made-in-Canada idea that would include - rather than exempt - cultural industries in any future trade agreements. There are even signs that the U.S. is willing to discuss the issue. Work is proceeding on several fronts. Copps spent the winter organizing meetings with officials from countries opposed to the unfettered international free trade of culture. Canadian cultural business leaders have lobbied in Washington and say they are gaining support among U.S. Congress members. Canadian Heritage DM Alex Himelfarb says 40 countries that support a separate global agreement on culture - preferably outside of the WTO - will meet in Greece in September to examine research done by individual countries and to try to decide on a new regulatory framework for cultural industries. In Canada, work is going on behind the scenes to determine the structure of such an agreement. Mexico and France have been strong allies in this exercise. Reaching a consensus on a final agreement, however, could take years. Ken Stein, chair of the federal government's Cultural Industries Sectoral Advisory Group on International Trade (SAGIT), says most countries would prefer that the WTO not be the organization that specifically deals with culture. Agreeing on another international organization to sponsor such an agreement, however, hasn't been easy. Several countries have rejected UNESCO because the U.S. does not belong to it, and because of internal problems in the organization. Whatever the organization, there does seem to be growing support for a cultural agreement that is rules-based. When culture is exempted from free trade agreements, Stein notes that it gives countries like the U.S. the ability to impose trade sanctions on non-related industries, if a dispute arises. "We screwed up in the (Free Trade Agreement) by having culture exempted because that has given the U.S. the right to retaliate against us. It's the worst kind of agreement. We don't want to repeat the mistakes of the FTA. Culture should be included within the trade agreement, and it should be rules-based," says Stein, who is also senior VP of corporate and regulatory affairs at Shaw Communications Inc.Early last year, SAGIT released its report calling for the creation of new international instrument on cultural diversity that would both protect and promote domestic cultural industries (CCR, March 3/99, July 14/99). Last fall, SAGIT released a follow-on report called New Strategies for Trade that has been distributed to Canadian MPs and to trade officials of foreign governments. "We have to deal with cultural issues between countries outside of the trade environment," says Stein, who made his comments to delegates attending last week's Canadian Satellite Users Association conference in Richmond Hill ON. Himelfarb says he doesn't want "to minimize how daunting it is to build such a new instrument". He adds that such agreements must have the consensus of several countries, including the backing of the U.S. to have any hopes of working. To that end, the Canadian government and SAGIT members are concentrating much of their efforts on U.S. political leaders. But he warns that when dealing with such a politically charged issue as culture, there are no guarantees that an agreement will be reached. "My fear is there are several drafts of instruments that have been floated by various subsidy constituents," he told CCR. "But actually getting cultural diversity and the rights of countries to protect culture into the (WTO) declaration to guide all negotiations, that's key. Culture can inadvertently be affected at tables that have nothing to do with culture given convergent technologies."

Canada makes progress in lining up support for global trade deal on culture

News | 03/30/2000 5:00 am EST

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