Trade and Culture

Governments that seek to liberalize trade can find that doing so is often in tension with their desire to achieve the objectives of cultural policy. This is because measures like local content requirements can seem like discriminatory practices when viewed through the lens of trade liberalization. This tension has prompted a long-standing debate, with great variation in how countries have approached it.

Trade and Culture: The Ongoing Debate explores this variation across geographic space. It also seeks to explain the evolution in these various policies over time. Policies are not static, largely due to domestic politics, shifts in the international trading system and technological developments. The chapters in this volume explore the different approaches to the trade and culture debate and provide an up-to-date look at current versions of these policies in Canada, the European Union, South Africa, Latin America, South Korea, the United States and China.

This book will be of great value to scholars and researchers interested in cultural policies and the politics of international trade.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Policy.