Cultural Diversity in a Context of Interinstitutional Dialectics: Leeway or No Way?

Several authors have already indicated that the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity is a significant political commitment to cultural diversity, but lacks the legal strength to act as a counterweight to the influence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its framework agreements in the audiovisual dossier. Given that the Convention will not 'save' cultural diversity in audiovisual trade flows, in the first part of the paper we question whether there are opportunities within the GATT and GATS frameworks to do so. We argue that the interference of the WTO in the audiovisual and related sectors is indeed irreversible, but also remains partly unpredictable. The WTO institutional framework does offer tools to accommodate to a balance of economic and non economic concerns and interests. The relationship between these tools and audiovisual policy however remains, for the time being, ambiguous. On the one hand, flexibilities do exist but their robustness is questionable and always subject to further (re)negotiation. Leeway in the WTO treaties on the other hand indicates some recognition of the specificity of the audiovisual sector and the relationship between cultural objects and national identity. In the second part of the paper we argue that the inquiry into the WTO legal framework for the audiovisual sector and the interinstitutional dialectics WTO - UNESCO should be complemented by more investigation of the specific country positions with regard to the audiovisual dossier. As a consequence, this part of the paper will look more closely at the different positions of WTO and UNESCO Members vis-à-vis the audiovisual dossier. Although the debate on the audiovisual sector is usually framed in a US-EU opposition it recently has been enriched and nuanced with new insights from other (developing country) trade partners. Taking into account our findings in part one of the paper and on the basis of the analysis of country positions we conclude that all partners have to deal with ambivalences internally, as well as with regard to external (trade) policy. It seems clear that parties withstand liberalisation as long as they have nothing to gain from it, but positions can shift when a stronger economic bargaining power is attained. In this sense the gloomy pospects for cultural diversity lie not so much within the WTO domain and its framework agreements, but in shifting country positions towards a more liberal stance in the audiovisual sector.