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A memo sent to correspondents,
friends and acquaintances of the Budapest
Observatory (BO) in April 2007
BO memo dimensions allow for one subject this time: culture
in world trade.
In Essen
in April
The
European
Conference on Cultural Diversity was held in Essen
under the aegis of the German presidency. 57 states have already ratified the
relevant Unesco convention.
By this, this Magna Charta of international cultural policies - as was
repeatedly labelled - has entered into force, at the same time becoming part of
the acquis of the European Union.
Forza Europa!
Although
the convention is more axed to north and south than to the two sides of the Atlantic, the Europe-America relationship attracted
considerable attention at the meeting. BO reinforced this in a panel
discussion, by recalling the strong language by Peter Sloterdijk in the essay that
was the springboard for a panel discussion. The German philosopher spoke about
"cultural kidnapping", about American mass culture "occupying the souls of
foreign people" - as religious missionaries used to do.
Cultural
identity ressentiment remained the prevailing mood. Certainly, without
elevated morale there are no chances to win. However, warfare tactics and
weapons are also needed: the conference nevertheless produced limited legal,
political and commercial devices.
Montreal monitors
Speaking
about next steps, in her speech Françoise
Rivière, the cultural deputy of the director general of Unesco, pointed at the
statisticians of the organisation, who will monitor the implementation of the
convention. BO thirst for facts and figures followed this guidance and
downloaded the latest report on
culture in world trade, issued in 2005 by the Montreal
based statistical institute
of Unesco.
The
data in the report at first (or even second) reading are at odds with
stereotypes.
See
two conflicting statements at the outset: "Cultural and creative industries
alone are estimated to account for over 7% of the world's Gross Domestic
Product"; and "core cultural goods (anything that one would conventionally
consider as ‘culture' - a BO comment) represented approximately 1% of the total
trade in 2002. This percentage has remained the same during the last ten years.
These figures might seem surprising in light of the perceived growing
importance of cultural industries in the world economy".
Who is the cultural giant?
Who
dominates the cultural markets of the world? Don't be quick, you'll lose the
bet. In 2002 the United Kingdom
sold more culture than the USA
did; the European Union (EU15) was the
main exporter of cultural goods, with 51.8% of all reporting countries.
And
who buys the most? In more pretentious language: which country is the most open
(curious? inclusive?) with regard to cultural goods and services from the rest
of the world? Grab your chair: the United States is. In fact, the
American deficit in cultural trade is over 100%: see the table at bottom.
Wrong clues
The
many tables in the Montreal
report contain some of the clues to the dilemma: how can trade statistics as
well as feelings about American cultural hegemony be both true at the same
time.
Maybe
in the copyright market? Not really. What European copyright management
societies collected in 2002 in royalties represented 57% of the world's total,
while North America obtained 25% (although it is widely held that extending the
term from 50 to 70 years mainly serves American interests).
Perhaps
in visual culture? Come on: Americans are the big buyers, with 42,0% of the
world trade of pictures, statues, handicrafts and the like, while selling 7,5%
only. For BO it is a mystery that these visual commodities represent a larger
share in international trade than audiovisual goods (cca 20% against 15%).
Right clues
In
2002 the USA
was top exporter in books, periodicals and recorded music. What about films?
Paradoxically, they hardly appear in the statistics of international trade, as
the copies for the cinemas are produced locally.
For
the real impact BO takes you from Montreal to Strasbourg. The latest
relevant report
from the European Audiovisual Observatory dates from November 2005. Slide 12 of
this powerpoint presentation shows that 59,4% of film admissions (viewers) in
the European Union (EU25) in 2004 were for American films, and in additional
11,2% there was an American share in European films viewed. French films came
second with 9,4% (plus some more among the 11,2% European-American
co-productions). Here we are: all top ten films by number of viewers (in Europe, in 2004) were fully or partly made by Americans -
slide 13.
State aid for films
How
does Europe fare in the competition for
cinema-goers? In fact, it is for film shooters that competition has lately been
waged. Tax incentives and other fiscal assistance focused on attracting large
budget films (guess, from where), which is at odds with the "European cultural
exception": Article
87(3)(d) of the EC treaty. This analysis shows how
two member countries changed their rules to look more cultural than merely
economic. The UK
has put greater emphasis on Britishness. The Germans are more generous: besides
German context, European relevance or strengthening cultural heritage in the
general sense, all entitle to public support.
Both
countries, however, exercise the territorial
clause.
Bitter truth
Poor countries, in principle the main beneficiaries
of the Unesco convention, are hardly visible in the statistics above.
Sloterdijk in his essay reminds us that there are only about 1,5 billion
people in the "highly networked affluence greenhouse". True. In spite of the latest
estimate of 2,5
billion cellular connections (mobile phones) in the world. Statistics are
embarrassing in this context, too.
Top five
countries by share from the world trade of core cultural goods in 2002
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Exports
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UK
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14,4%
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USA
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12,8%
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Germany
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9,8%
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China
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9,0%
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France
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4,2%
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Imports
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USA
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25,8%
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UK
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13,3%
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Germany
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7,1%
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Canada
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6,4%
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France
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5,7%
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Source: International Flows of Selected Cultural Goods and Services,
1994-2003, Defining and capturing the flows of global cultural trade, UNESCO
Institute for Statistics, UNESCO Sector for Culture, UNESCO Institute for
Statistics, Montreal, 2005
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