Defending Lilliput, domestic cultural industry development schemes and the wrold trade regime

by Kotlowitz, Danny M.

This thesis investigates the increasingly tenuous position of domestic cultural industry development schemes, particularly for film, television and music, within the worLd trade regime. The common justifications for the deployment of such schemes are outlined, and the various methodologies adopted by countries to support their cultural industries, e.g. broadcast quotas, tax breaks, direct subsidies, and foreign ownership restrictions, are examined by way of value chah analysis. The WTO regime is then introduced, and the application of the GATS to audiovisual products is exarnined. The history and outcornes of such schemes in Austraiia, Canada and South M c a are specifically discussed, with particula. attention being paid to Project Blue Sky Inc. v Aurtralian BroadcastingAuthoriîy.The "public morals" exception is considered as a possible escape route for the retention of broadcast quotas, and the thesis concludes with an examination of the current Canadian initiative to build an international coalition for the creation of specific des on international trade in cultural products.