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>>>CULTURE

Taking culture off the table

Canadian initiative promotes cultural
diversity in spite of globalization

Justin Olynyk
The Manitoban

(cup)Discussions about the effects of globalization tend to focus on
economics, human rights or the environment. This norm is beginning
to change because of a Canadian-led initiative by the International
Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD), which calls for rules for arts
and culture in a global economy.

“If you’re going to write rules for investment, intellectual property,
capital flow and investor's rights, you must add rules and parameters
for other vitalities of life, including culture,” says Toronto actor and
INCD member R.H. Thomson.

The effect of globalization on the arts and individual artists is a rel-
atively new issue on the international scene. It was first discussed at
a conference hosted by the
United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) in
Stockholm in 1998.

This led to the formation of
two organizations—the
International Network _ for
Cultural Policy (INCP) in
1998, which creates dialogue
between cultural ministers
from various governments,
and the INCD in 2000, a non-
governmental organization
based in Ottawa. The INCD
has over 400 members (vari-
ous arts organizations and individual artists) from 52 countries.

Many countries are worried that if trade in cultural products were
unrestricted, countries that already make mass market cultural prod-
ucts would gain a large share of these new markets. This would hurt
local artists and ultimately local cultures and could eventually lead to
these cultures dying. The INCD is committed to countering the
homogenizing effects that globalization can have on local cultures.
They hope to develop a framework that would give individual nations
the ability to protect the diversity of their culture.

“This is a treaty or instrument that says: here’s the realm of culture
that is vital to every people and every different cultural group in the
world. We will pursue whatever policies we need to promote the rich-
es of the world’s culture and the [World Trade Organization] can’t
impinge on this set of agreements of culture,” says Thomson.

Although Thomson acknowledges that Canada is currently the sec-
ond largest exporter of English language TV in the world (behind the
United States), he still believes Canada’s cultural industries would be
hurt by unrestricted trade of cultural products.

“Some sectors have benefited from free trade, but culture will
absolutely lose. Canada doesn’t have the economies of scale in this
country to make TV, film, broadcasting or recording work, so govern-
ments have put in place structural adjustments like CanCon and tax
credits—all the things the Americans hate.”

Because of Canada’s proximity to the United States, the Canadian

“Even though the Canadian
government has long supported the arts
in Canada, INCD administrator Alexis
Andrew has recently had some
doubts about the Canadian
government’s commitment to the arts.”

government has long been concerned about loss of cultural identity,
especially since World War II. Even with subsidies to artists, restric-
tions on foreign ownership and Canadian content regulations,
American content continues to dominate sales of music and movies
in Canada.

In the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), there is a weak exemption for culture.
This exemption has been challenged several times by the United
States, including a 1997 WTO ruling about split-run American maga-
zines being sold in Canada.

The WTO ruled that “measures to protect cultural identity [is] not an
issue in the present case.” But now, countries like the United States,
Brazil and India, which produce large numbers of movies and televi-
sion programs, want the audio/visual sector-the most lucrative cul-
tural industry—to be on the negotiation table.

Even though the Canadian government has long supported the arts
in Canada, INCD administrator Alexis Andrew has recently had some
doubts about the Canadian government's commitment to the arts.
She fears that the arts could be used as a trade off issue in WTO
negotiations.

“In [the 1999 WTO confer-
ence in] Seattle, Canada
argued for cultural diversity in
the ministerial notes. In [the
2001 WTO conference in]
Qatar, Canada didn’t men-
tion arts,” says Andrew.

Because of this concern,
Andrew believes that culture
must be negotiated sepa-
rately from other trade agree-
ments. “Artistic expression
can’t be on the table with
tradable commodities. There
have to be rules that guide
the international exchange of artistic content? she argues.

However, in spite of the obstacles, Thomson remains optimistic. “If
we pull this off, it will be an enormous accomplishment because it will

‘be a template for what other parts of human life can do not to be

ground under rules from the WTO,” says Thomson.
For more information on the International Network for Cultural
Diversity, visit www.incd.net