Introduction

As WTO dispute settlement alone cannot provide a satisfactory compromise among WTO Members regarding cultural products, and as neither the UNESCO Convention nor any other international instrument appears likely to resolve this problem, WTO Members should consider a third, final option for achieving a solution: trying again to reach agreement. This approach will give Members the best chance of reconciling cultural and trade values and the greatest control over the outcome.

Members have been locked in intense negotiations to improve and build on the Uruguay Round agreements, as part of the Doha Development Agenda. However, these negotiations are limited by tight deadlines (several of which have already been missed) and a restricted mandate, not to mention the temporary suspension of the negotiations. For example, asmentioned in Chapter 3, the GATS negotiations are to ‘take place within and … respect the existing structure and principles of the GATS, including the right to specify sectors in which commitments will be undertaken and the four modes of supply’. Similarly, although the Doha negotiations cover some cross-cutting issues such as development, they include no general mandate to review GATT 1994. The outcome of Doha will also depend on various political matters and horsetrading.