Cultural Exception

The cultural exception is a concept in International law and cultural policy.

This whole of provisions aims at making Culture an exception in the international treaties, in particular near the World Trade organization (OMC). The purpose of these provisions are to specify that the State S are Souverain S and founded to limit the free trade of the Culture on the Marché to support and promote their clean Artiste S, vehicles and spokesperson of their culture.

In practice, for the installation and in theory for the application of these provisions, they are supported by 31 national Coalitions in the following countries: Argentinian Germany, , Australia, Belgium, Benign, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Congo, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Spain, France, Guinea, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mali, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Senegal, Slovakia, Swiss, Togo, Uruguay.

Equipped with an International committee of connection, the CIL-CDD, they gathers approximately 400 professional organizations of the Culture of all the areas of the world.

History

In 1948 the international agreements of GATT come into effect which are liberal rules of nontariff discrimination and freedom of the exchanges. There exist safeguard clauses which recognize with the developing countries the possibility of raising their customs duties in order to protect the emergent industries, which was the case for numbers of countries so protecting from the Hollywood cinema in particular thanks to the installation from a system from quotas (Article 4).

As of the years 1960, the USA started to criticize these safeguard clauses by binding their program televised to GATT. Indeed they estimated that the restriction on the importation of their program was contrary with Article 4 of the agreement because this article was valid only for the cinema.

In 1986 at the time of the Uruguay Round on the liberalization of the trade of the services was adopted the agreements of GATS. 3 principles were to apply:

  1. Principle of free access of the Gone: the customs duties must disappear.
  2. Clause of the national treatment: it is interdict to penalize commercially a product imported compared to the national products.
  3. Clause of the nation most favoured: If two States of GATT agreed advantages mutually, those must be wide with all the Member States of GATT.

These agreements caused the fear of Europeans who saw in them a threat for their own culture sections. This is why it was necessary to think of a special statute for the Culture. 3 clauses were possible: that of exemption, that of exception and that of specificity. In 1993 the the European Parliament chooses the clause of cultural identity what thus supposes the integration of the culture in the negotiations of GATT, but by setting up a list of engagements taking care that all the protection mechanisms of the specific culture to each Member State can be maintained.

France was violently opposed to this too flexible statute by pointing finger this exhaustive list which could cause a danger of fatal liberalization. This is why it defended the thesis of the cultural exception.

Finally in 1994, a clause of cultural exception different from that of France is finally adopted. This clause stipulates that the culture is not definitively excluded from GATT but that for the moment she is not regarded as not included. The definition of French cultural exception approached more that of exemption.

French cultural exception

See also: French cultural Exception

In France, the principle of “Cultural diversity” is related to that of French cultural Exception, although this last consists more of one defense of the Art S (in particular the Musique and the Cinéma) national with respect to a “industry Américanisé E” regarded as dangerous for diversity. One of the major tools used by France to fight against this danger is the installation of quotas:

  • decree TASCA of the 1/17/1990 poses two types of quotas for the cinema and the audio-visual one:

  1. of the production quotas which force the television channels to invest 3,2% of their annual sales turnover to the production of cinematographic works or audio-visual French and European. 2,5% from these 3,2% must be allocated with works EOF (French Original Expression). Exception of 9% for Canal+.

  2. of the quotas of diffusion which force the chains to devote 60% of their time of antenna for European works, including 40% of works EOF (initially the text envisaged 50%, but will be modified into 92 following the dissatisfaction with our European neighbors compared to this decree).
  • the law on applicable 2/1/1994 as of the 1/1/1996 imposes quotas on the French radios as for the diffusion of the titles Francophone S. This law fixes a rate of 40% of programming of works create or interpreted by French-speaking people, of which 20% are new talents during the hours of significant listening.

In that the concept of “defense of the cultural exception” is a subset of that of “defense of cultural diversity”.

It is remarkable that cultural diversity, when she is recommended by the State or the French media, never relates to a recognition of this diversity inside the French borders.

See too

Antonyms

  • Americanization | cultural Impérialisme American in American Impérialisme

In sociology, the cultural exception indicates that which does not follow the diagram of social reproduction. (Terrail) For example, a child of workman who becomes professor is a cultural exception.

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