Canada's culture/trade quandary and the magazine case.

• Author: Browne, Dennis

Dennis Browne is Director of the Centre for Trade Policy and Law at Carleton University. This article is based on a presentation to a Library of Parliament seminar on February 20, 1998.

Canada has long been a strong supporter of open markets and the international trade agreements necessary to secure them. But recently conflicts have developed between policies put in place to foster Canadian culture and international trade agreements Canada has signed. This article argues that culture is a "special" commodity. It also examines the framework for international trade and at one specific recent case involving the World Trade Organization's decision on split-run magazines.

In general discussions of Canadian culture and the need to foster and protect it, almost everyone finds it best to avoid definition. I remember the L.A. Times, headline: "Canadian Culture? Whatever It Is, They Want to Preserve It."

Definitions do exist in trade agreements. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for example, provides an exemption for individuals or enterprises engaged in cultural product creation, distribution, broadcasting, etc., but this does not fully address the underlying issue of the need for cultural expression in a modern society.

When pressed for a definition of Canadian culture I suggest that culture is "the value-laden expression of ideas". In other words Canadians must have opportunities to hear themselves speak in their own voices.

We must recognize that Canadians and Americans are not the same. We are remarkably similar, but we do have some pretty fundamental underlying differences. They are often subtle, they are not easily identified or catalogued without appearing to make derogatory comparisons, but they are there.

Social scientists have conducted studies which demonstrate that a sense of shared values is an essential underpinning to the continued functioning of a democratic society. Intuitively it makes sense. Democracies function on the basis of consent by their citizens. The citizens may agree to disagree on various details, but they have to share a common set of fundamental values. Otherwise they would not risk elections every few years that may result in political power passing from one group to another.

From this we can extrapolate that if we are going to preserve these shared values, we must have opportunities to hear, read and see common expressions of value. If Canada is to continue as a nation state, we must share or exchange value-laden expressions of ideas that reflect Canadian values - whatever they might be.

In our society the media are the mirrors. Films and television give back images which confirm things for us. We hear our language, we see our neighbourhoods, we watch stories about people like ourselves. The question is whether our children have access to a mirror which reflects something of themselves. Does what they see identify who they are?

Frequent exposure to value-laden expressions of ideas is necessary to ensure the political socialization of children into their respective societies. It is very important. If children grow up without identifying themselves as members of their society, by the time they reach early adulthood, they will have real problems fitting in and we will end up with a sort of dysfunctional family - nationwide.

As the population has become more mobile, as family ties grow a bit looser, as community structures such as neighbourhood churches and neighbourhood playgrounds become less central to our personal development, the importance of commercial cultural expression increases almost exponentially.

The cultural expressions I have been talking about tend, more often than not, to be embedded in cultural products, most of which are the subject of commercial transactions: books, magazines, newspapers, films, videos, television programs, recorded music, various live performances, and so on. These products circulate or are distributed in our society and we as individuals generally must choose from what is available.

Thus if we are to have opportunities to hear ourselves speak in our own voices, circumstances must exist that will both foster the development of the talents of those among us who have the abilities to create cultural expression, and ensure that some "shelf-space" will be available for their expressions in our incredibly crowded cultural milieu.

Culture and the Framework for International Trade

The framework for international trade regulation is a collection of multilateral or regional intergovernmental agreements that seek to place limits on the capacity of member governments to interfere in the market place to achieve domestic objectives.

A common objective of international trade agreements is to open markets - to increase competition. All modern agreements are based on certain principles and exceptions. The principles open markets and increase competition. The exceptions tend to close markets or decrease competition.

For Canada, the most important agreements are the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements and the North America Free Trade Agreement. The WTO agreements consist of an...