[Ecommerce] IP watch story on UNESCO: "Pieces of evil in a treaty"?

[Manon Ress]

US =91Pulls Out All Stops=92 As UNESCO Backs Culture Treaty

United Nations

posted by William New @ 9:50 pm
Paris=97The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) today approved a treaty for the protection of cultural
diversity despite an all-out drive by the United States to get
governments to change their minds.

=93We really pulled out all the stops=94 in the past week to try to
change the outcome of this treaty, a US official said in an interview
afterward. This included telegrams to US embassies around the world
with instructions to try to influence decision-makers in each
country, and phone calls placed to other governments by the Office of
the US Trade Representative.

But despite the push by the US government, the outcome was
unchangeable because it was =93cooked,=94 meaning it was already decided,
the official charged.

The draft Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity
of Cultural Expressions is a legal instrument intended to give an
additional tool to governments to guard their national cultural
identities from global influences.

The final version will be voted on Thursday by the plenary of the
UNESCO annual General Conference, following today=92s passage by the
UNESCO commission responsible for it.

The final commission vote was 151 in favour, 2 opposed, and two
abstentions. The US and Israel opposed, and Australia and the South
Pacific island of Kiribati abstained.

The US also garnered the support of several nations for its list of
some 30 amendments, all of which were soundly rejected. Supporters of
its amendments included Australia, El Salvador, Israel, Libya, and
Rwanda.

Only one substantive change was adopted at the meeting, an amendment
by Japan to strengthen the clarification that the treaty would fit
with other international instruments and would be consistent with
UNESCO=92s constitution.

Concerns About Trade Links And =91Pieces of Evil=92

US concerns about the treaty are that it is vaguely worded and could
be used by other countries to construct trade barriers to US exports
of film, music or other cultural products. The US said the term
cultural diversity itself was not sufficiently defined in the treaty.

=93This is not about culture, it=92s about trade,=94 a US official said in
an interview afterward. =93This is trade policy by cultural ministers.=94
Specific concerns are about efforts at the World Trade Organization
by France to block liberalisation of audiovisual products, and by
Canada to protect its publications.

Different officials gave different interpretations of Article 20 in
the treaty regarding the UNESCO treaty=92s relationship to other
international instruments. It is unclear how subordinate this treaty
will be to others, such as at the WTO.

While most countries backed the treaty, some, including European
nations like the United Kingdom, have privately assured the United
States that they do not intend to ratify it, a US official said. The
US does not plan to ratify the treaty, the official said.

He also did not reject the notion that the US would reconsider its
decision to rejoin UNESCO in 2003 after 19 years outside the body.
But he said the reason for rejoining was not to block the cultural
diversity treaty. Since joining, the US has contributed 22 percent of
the UN body=92s US$610 million biennial budget.

France=92s Ambassador to UNESCO Jean Gueguinou in an interview
afterward confirmed the possibility that the treaty could be used to
protect domestic cultural industries, but downplayed the concern. He
said UNESCO=92s passage follows France=92s adoption of a cultural
diversity declaration in 2001, and that this is a period in which
many countries see globalisation as a threat. =93A lot of countries
have a fear about their cultural diversity,=94 he said.

The treaty recognises that the majority of countries consider it
necessary to be able to protect their identities if they want to,
Gueguinou said, adding that some countries want such a policy but
lack the means to develop it on their own.

The United States lost a number of fights on this treaty along the
way to approval. For instance, it sought to include more than a dozen
references to intellectual property rights but, according to the US
official, was prevented by Brazil, which tied the effort to
negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Brazil
meanwhile managed to get a reference to traditional knowledge into
the UNESCO treaty, something it has pushed at WIPO, he said.

=93That=92s just one of the pieces of evil in this treaty,=94 the US
official said to a backdrop of laughter and back-slapping by hundreds
of other officials all around.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of the
news articles and features on Intellectual Property Watch are also
subject to a Creative Commons License which makes them available for
widescale, free, non-commercial reproduction and translation.

William New, the author of this post, may be reached at wnew@ip-
watch.org.

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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