The European Union, the World Trade Organization and Cultural Diversity

Abstract

The increased exchange of goods, services, peoples and ideas across borders, intrinsic to globalisation, has had many and multifaceted effects. Those affecting culture are amongst the most controversial. The ‘trade and culture’ quandary could indeed be phrased more revealingly as ‘trade versus culture’. It is an area of contestation that emerged in the forum of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its institutional predecessor, the General agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). The debate became particularly heated during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations (1986–1994). The European Union (EU or the Union) and its member states played a key role in this battle, which almost turned into a stumbling block for the entire negotiations and ultimately had a strong impact on the design of the WTO Agreements, especially the rules on services.