Cultural diversity and free trade: the case of the EU-Canada agreement

This article examines the role assigned to culture in general and to cultural industries and diversity in particular by the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). Although it pursues further economic liberalization, the arrangement is about much more than trade: its preamble, for instance, contains a reference to the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Nevertheless, the text lacks a general exception clause protecting culture. This paper examines the consolidated CETA text from the perspective of political economy to clarify to what extent this is an opportunity to reconcile rules of free trade with cultural policies aiming to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions, especially when the latter derive from cultural industries in both analogue and digital scenarios.This work is based on research undertaken for the project 'Diversity of the Audiovisual Industry in the Digital Age' [CS02014 52354R], diversidadaudiovisual.org, supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness within the National RDI Prograrn Aimed at the Challenges of Society