A historical perspective

Observers of recent developments in international trade law may remember that audio-visual media was a hot issue at the end of the Uruguay Round in 1993. There was a dispute dividing two groups of countries. The first group was made up of governments conceiving audio-visual media as entertainment products, which do not differ from any other products. They wanted audio-visual media to be subject to the rules of trade liberalisation in the services sector. The second group consisted of countries conceiving audio-visual media as cultural products, i.e. as vectors of the fundamental values and ideas of a society. The slogan of this second group was the notorious ‘cultural exception’. The whole debate had the structure of an all-or-nothing issue and provoked highly emotional reactions in the media. The general impression was that of a wide gap dividing two completely different ways of conceiving audio-visual media without much hope for bridging it. In the very last moment of the negotiations, however, it was possible to find a compromise: while it was decided that audio-visual services are covered by the GATS, Members agreed on a flexible method of liberalisation allowing each country to refrain from making any specific commitments on market access and national treatment in relation to audio-visual services and to put measures related to film and television programmes on a list of exceptions to the general obligation of most-favoured nation treatment.