The French Coalition for Cultural Diversity is sounding the alarm as the trade negotiations launched in 2017 by 71 member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to establish standards for e-commerce accelerate, posing a major risk to the future of cultural diversity in the digital age.
During the negotiations on this draft agreement, the European Commission seems prepared to depart from the legal and political commitments it has traditionally made to protect audiovisual services from any trade agreement. In an unprecedented move, it is considering not asking for audiovisual services to be included in the exceptions to the scope of the agreement.
The inclusion of audiovisual services at this stage is not only based on a totally questionable interpretation of its negotiating mandate, which has always explicitly excluded them from any commitment. But it would also mean that the creation, production and distribution of audiovisual and cinematographic goods and services would be used as a bargaining chip in a generalised haggle.
Such an unprecedented commitment by the European Commission would run counter to the European Union’s consistent position since the GATT negotiations, and would run the risk of denying the legitimate right of States to prepare, adopt and implement policies to support the audiovisual sector, in particular to take account of the upheavals introduced by digital technology.
Faced with this desire on the part of the European Commission to extend the scope of its mandate to the detriment of cultural diversity, the French Coalition calls on the French Government to stand firm on the principles and defence of the cultural exception, as it has always done in the rounds of trade negotiations conducted by the Commission.
As the timetable speeds up, with an initial agreement likely to be reached in the next few weeks, the Coalition is also calling on MEPs, candidates in the European elections and Member States to mobilise vigorously and without delay to ensure that Europe remains a land of creation, protected from liberalisation commitments.