視聽覺서비스 市場開放 協商과 政策課題

Abstract

The global audiovisual services sector is still dominated by U.S., and Korea's trade deficit, albeit relatively small in amount, is growing sharply. Past international trade negotiations on audiovisual services sector can be summarized in the simple terms of seesaw battle between U.S. who emphasizes market functions and EU who underscores cultural identity and diversity of individual nations. And the battle is now set to resume with the launching of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). Future negotiations are expected to be advanced along the usual line of past debates, but they will also be affected to a degree by how member states interpret new information technologies‘ effects on audiovisual services. The current article overviews the backgrounds of growing competition among audiovisual services providers; the definition and the characterization of audiovidual services; the results of past negotiations; and the hotly contested issues in recent negotiations. The current article goes on to assess Korea's specific commitments, and finally offers some policy recommendations for upcoming negotiations. It spells out several key issues, namely the definition and characterization of audiovisual services; the possibility of a pro-market approach in light of discernible increase in export of domestic audiovisual contents; and the development of safeguard measures to protect cultural identity and diversity.