Canada as multilateral player: Trade in cultural products

Abstract

In recent years, Canada has pursued an aggressive policy of ‘cultural diversity’ for its own cultural goods in international trade, and has been among the strongest proponents of the argument that sovereign states should be free to protect and promote their cultural industries. This has position has put it into conflictwith the United States government, which promotes open markets, views cultural products as commodities, and strongly defends its economic dominance in many types of cultural exports. This article chronicles Canada's policy approach to trade and culture in a changing international environment, namely one in which the United States is the sole superpower. The article examines the trajectory of Canada's evolving cultural policy and defense of cultural sovereignty. Canada's cultural policy history and the negotiation of its commitments to both free trade and cultural protectionism are explored, with the conclusion discussing the significance of the UNESCO instrument and endorsing continued Canadian commitment to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of The Diversity of Cultural Expression.

Keywords:

• culture
• cultural trade
• UNESCO
• cultural diversity

Notes

“National treatment” means that domestic companies cannot receive any advantages that are not also given to foreign companies and is a common feature of international trade agreements.

The 118 ratifying countries (in addition to the EU) as of January 2012 in order of ratification are: Canada, Mauritius, Mexico, Romania, Monaco, Bolivia, Republic of Moldova, Djibouti, Croatia, Togo, Belarus, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Moldova, Peru, Guatemala, Senegal, Ecuador, Mali, Cameroon, Albania, Namibia, India, Finland, Austria, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, Bulgaria, Cyprus, South Africa, Ireland, Greece, Brazil, Norway, Uruguay, Panama, China, St Lucia, Iceland, Andorra, Tunisia, Jordan, Italy, Armenia, Germany, Chile, Niger, Portugal, Oman, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Gabon, Macedonia, Cuba, Bangladesh, Latvia, Kuwait, Vietnam, Poland, Egypt, Cambodia, New Zealand, Mongolia, Mozambique, Tajikistan, Kenya, Paraguay, Laos, United Kingdom, Benin, Nigeria, Syria, Guinea, Argentina, Hungary, Zimbabwe, Chad, Sudan, Seychelles, Montenegro, Georgia, Switzerland, Ethiopia, Barbados, Burundi, Congo, Grenada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Qatar, Serbia, Australia, Dominican Republic, St Vincent and Grenadines, the Netherlands, Guyana, Haiti, Azerbaijan, Lesotho, Ukraine, Malawi, Republic of Korea, Equatorial Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, Czech Republic, Honduras, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Gambia and Tanzania (http://portal.unesco.org/).

While not extensively discussed in this article, see Neathery-Castro and Rousseau (2010, 2011) for a discussion of Quebec's role in promoting the UNESCO CCD and the federal politics surrounding it.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jody Neathery-Castro

Jody Neathery-Castro is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She has published research on the intersection of trade and culture, particularly as it relates to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Quebec, Canada and France. The author thanks Mark O. Rousseau and Daneis Barber for research assistance and Timothy Shaw, David Carment, Michael Hawes, Christopher Kirkey, colleagues at the “Canada in a Unipolar World” colloquium and two anonymous reviewers for their comments. She also gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Fulbright Canada and the Center for the Study of Canada at SUNY-Plattsburgh.