P.L.H. van den Bossche

Free Trade and Culture: A Study of Relevant WTO Rules and Constraints on National Cultural Policy Measures

In recent years, economic globalisation has had a profound impact on national cultures. Trade liberalisation and technological innovations, the driving forces behind the process of economic globalisation, have brought down many barriers that in the past obstructed the free cross-border circulation of cultural goods and services. People worldwide increasingly listen to the same music, watch the same movies and read the same books. Many artists, cultural policy makers and other stakeholders are concerned about the loss of global cultural diversity and the threat to the cultural identity of their countries. In response to these concerns, the governments of many countries have sought to maintain or introduce measures that discriminate against foreign cultural goods and services or otherwise obstruct the trade in these goods and services. This monograph on Free Trade and Culture explores to what extent the law of the World Trade Organization allows countries to take unilateral measures for the protection or promotion of their national culture.

WTO Rules on Technical Barriers to Trade

In modern society, products are often subject to requirements relating to their characteristics and/or the manner in which they are produced. The purpose of these requirements may be the protection of life or health, the protection of the environment, the prevention of deceptive practices or to ensure the quality of products. These requirements may constitute formidable barriers to trade. Moreover, procedures set up to verify whether a product meets certain requirements may obstruct trade. These barriers to trade are referred to as technical barriers to trade. One must distinguish between: • the general category of technical barriers to trade, for which rules have been set out in the TBT Agreement; and • a special category of technical barriers to trade, namely sanitary and phytosanitary measures, for which rules are provided in the SPS Agreement. The rules of the TBT Agreement and the SPS Agreement are of great importance to international trade. They go significantly beyond the GATT obligations not to discriminate among or against imported products or not to impose quantitative restrictions but also impose certain international disciplines on national regulation regarding products, their characteristics and production. This working paper gives an overview of the scope of application as well as the substantive and institutional/procedural provisions of the TBT Agreement and the SPS Agreement.

Rules on NGO Accreditation: Do Existing Legal Arrangements Facilitate the Legitimization of the Role of NGOs in International Organisations?

This article examines the involvement of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a number of selected international organisations and the rules on NGO accreditation currently applied by these international organisations. It is submitted that appropriate legal arrangements for accreditation of NGOs facilitate the legitimization of their role in international organisations. None of the examined international organisations have currently implemented fully appropriate legal arrangements for the accreditation of NGOs. The arrangements implemented by the UN Economic and Social Council, however, set a good example for other international organisations and form an excellent basis for further improvement.