The French campaign against the global tide of US entertainment planned to take a big stride forward Thursday when almost every nation backs the first world convention on protecting culture.

Most of the 190 members of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN cultural agency, are expected to vote for a "convention on cultural diversity," which enshrines on a global level France's longstanding policy of subsidising its arts and imposing quotas on US films and music.

The vote would be a big defeat for the United States, which held out against the plan with partial backing from Israel, Australia and Japan.

The convention could now be cited by any country to justify protecting its entertainment industry with measures similar to those used by France if they are contested at the World Trade Organization (WTO) as barriers to free trade.

France spends tens of millions of euros every year to subsidise its film industry, theatre and opera. It also protects music and television production with strict quotas on the level of non-French songs and programmes that may be broadcast on radio and television.

The convention has no real legal teeth and must be ratified by at least 30 UNESCO members.

Paris insists, however, that it endorses the French stand for the past 13 years against the inclusion of entertainment products in negotiations at the WTO.

The question is on the table again at the next WTO session, opening in Hong Kong in December. France believes that it has scored a triumph by extending to the world its policy of "cultural exception," the term for the defence of French language and culture against the US ascendancy.

Britain, the current holder of the European Union presidency, led the rest of the EU behind the agreement, arguing that it did not justify American fears that it promoted trade barriers.

There are still big differences in interpretation. The Americans and British say that the convention text makes clear that it does not take precedence over existing law. The French say that it creates law in a hitherto undefined area and gives legal backing to countries that refuse American pressure to open their entertainment industry to foreign imports.

"We are no longer the black sheep on this issue," said Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. "Europe is united on this. It shares the values that we have defended." Staving off alien culture was essential for the fight against international terrorism, he added.

Washington says that the text could be wilfully misinterpreted as a basis for impermissible new barriers to trade. The definition of culture is open to abuse, they say.

Source: China Daily