Impact Study: UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals

The EU, as a key actor in endorsing the objectives of the 2005 Convention, reacted accordingly and sought to adapt its trade policy. The CARIFORUM-EU EPA is the clearest expression of this shift and represents the first North-South regional trade instrument that takes into account the 2005 Convention’s preferential treatment obligation, under Article 16, and the clauses on cooperation for development under Article 14. The CARIFORUM-EU EPA seeks to tackle the structural and asymmetrical imbalances in cultural exchanges by helping CARIFORUM States enhance local creative capacities, increase the competitiveness of their cultural creative goods and services, consolidate their regional integration and increase their participation in global trade. With the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, European countries granted market access to cultural and entertainment services for CARIFORUMartists and cultural professionals and annexed a special Protocol on Cultural Cooperation to facilitate partnerships and the exchange of cultural activities, goods and services, including in the audiovisual sector: “The CARIFORUM-EU partnership agreement created an important precedent, particularly since previous EU trade agreements contained virtually no reference to cultural cooperation. In this sense, it has shaped the basis for international cooperation on cultural issues and creative industries, taking into account the engagement of the international community as regards the implementation of the 2005 Convention and their commitment to respect and promote cultural diversity 10 ”. TheEPAadvancedcultural aspects raisedhopes of generating a dynamic of change towards economic diversification and strategic industrial upgrading, in general and for concrete outcomes, in cultural trade 11 . 10. Edna dos Santos-Duisenberg, in The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions , S. von Schorlemer and P.-T. Stoll (eds), Springer, 2012, 386. 11. See Keith Nurse, Allyson Francis and Keron Niles, ‘The EPA and Beyond: The Case for Industrial and Innovation Policy’, Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies (Special Issue on the CARIFORUM–EU Economic Partnership Agreement) 33 (2008): 70-104; for voices from the negotiators, see also Richard Bernal, ‘CARIFORUM–EU Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations: Why and How’, Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies 33:2 (2008):4; Owen Arthur, ‘The Economic Partnership Agreement between the CARIFORUM and the European Union and the Building of a Post-Colonial Economy in the Caribbean’, Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies 33:2 (2008), 27.

The EPA advanced cultural aspects raised hopes of generating a dynamic of change towards economic diversification and strategic industrial

upgrading in cultural trade

13 Culture in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA