Three US Bilaterals Enter Into Force, but Obama Administration Trade Stance Still to Come
In recent months, three countries—Costa Rica, Oman and Peru—finally completed all of the steps required for their respective free trade agreements with the United States to enter into force.
Almost four years after it was signed and approved by the Costa Rican population in a narrow referendum win in October 2007, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the United States and Central America (and the Dominican Republic) finally came into force for Costa Rica on January 1, 2009.
Contrary to other Central American countries, Costa Rica managed to secure certain provisions that will allow it to retain some latitude for adopting cultural policies. Among them, Costa Rica will be able to set national content quotas for radio and television of up to 50%. Moreover, it will be permitted to grant differential treatment to other countries under bilateral agreements (for example, co-production agreements) in the publishing, music and audiovisual sectors. While far from an outright exclusion of culture, these provisions indicate Costa Rica’s negotiators sought to maintain some leeway for their government in the realms of cultural policies.
Unlike the case of Costa Rica, the FTA with Oman, which also came into force on January 1, 2009, contains no noteworthy provisions on culture. Although Oman was one of the first countries in the Middle-East to ratify the Convention (March 2007, six months after signing the FTA) and was elected to the Intergovernmental Committee tasked with implementing the Convention, unfortunately it has lost considerable leeway to adopt its own cultural policies by signing this agreement.
On February 1, 2009, it was Peru’s turn to have its FTA come into effect. Of all three countries, Peru was the one that managed to secure the most significant cultural provisions in its agreement. For instance, Peru will be able to retain national content quotas for conventional television (30%), conventional radio (10%) and movie theatres (20%). It has also maintained the right to grant preferential treatment to other countries under bilateral agreements, notably co-production agreements, in the field of cultural industries. Of particular importance here is that the definition of cultural industries not only includes the usual sectors of publishing, music and audiovisuals, but also encompasses the performing arts, visual arts and handicrafts. Peru also secured additional provisions giving it greater latitude in the handicrafts, visual arts, performing arts, music and publishing sectors.
Despite these important provisions, Peru in no way obtained the full and outright exclusion of culture from this deal. Moreover, some of these provisions are limited, such as in the case of the television sector, where the country will lose its right to set national content quotas with the transition to digital TV.
The new Obama administration has yet to announce its trade strategy for the coming years, and this may be further delayed by the current economic crisis. For the time being, negotiations at the WTO are at a standstill and since the “fast-track” trade authority ended in July 2007, the United States has not been actively pursuing bilateral negotiations, other than with Malaysia (these talks were launched in 2006 and the most recent round held in July 2008).
Finally, it should be noted that three other bilateral agreements the United States has signed with Panama, Colombia and South Korea have yet to come into force. While the Panamanian and Colombian legislatures have approved the agreements, the U.S. Congress have so far refused to ratify the deals and the Obama administration remains tight-lipped about the future of these agreements. The U.S.-South Korea FTA has not yet been ratified by either government.
