Assessing culture in trade agreements
Within the framework of the re-designed Aschberg programme for artists and cultural professionals, international experts will gather in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from 18 to 20 April 2018 to analyze how the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and its related clauses on preferential treatment are implemented through trade agreements. This meeting is organized with the support of Anyang University and will be hosted by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO.
Experts gathered will present and discuss their first findings and conclusions from the research conducted around four major bilateral and multilateral trade agreements: the European Union-Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement, the European Union-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement, the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement and the Republic of Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
One of the major focus of the new Aschberg programme is the promotion of preferential treatment measures – an obligation of developed countries that have ratified the Convention, in accordance with its Article 16, to facilitate a balanced flow of cultural goods and services and increase the mobility of artists and cultural professionals from the Global South.
The purpose of these four impact studies is to asses to what extent these trade agreements, in granting special treatment to cultural goods and services, have contributed to the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions. The evidence provided through this research will help to design, in cooperation with the UNESCO Chair on Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Quebec, Canada), a new training and awareness programme on policies and measures to implement preferential treatment clauses.
The four case studies will be published in a new volume of the ‘Policy and Research Papers’, which will be released before the end of 2018, in continuation of the volume already published ‘Culture in Treaties and Agreements’.
