The Region-As EPA Ink dries

By Josanne Leonard
Reprinted from the Trinidad and Tobago Review
It’s now three months since the controversial CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was signed in Bridgetown, Barbados. It was back in October that the agreement was signed even as debate raged across the region about the broader implications of the EPA and our state of readiness for benefiting from potential opportunities. In the case of T&T, government officials had declared this country “ready to sign” several months before. Whatever the merits and demerits of the EPA, the die is now cast. The region  enters 2009 with the ink dry on the deal and fully wedded to the EPA.  So what now?
While by no means exhaustive, this article attempts to highlight some of the EPA text on the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation, with a focus on the implications for the region’s Cultural Industries and Entertainment Sectors.

Keith Waithe
Keith Waithe

By way of brief background however, it is important to note that historically the Europeans have not allowed market access commitments into their audio-visual sector (television, film etc) in any trade agreement. This is a jealously guarded sector, integral to their sense of culture and identity and which is supported by a range of cross-cutting policies, incentives and institutional mechanisms designed to buttress and support it  while strengthening their competitiveness. For example, over the past sixteen years Europe’s MEDIA Programme has supported the development and distribution of thousands of EU-produced films and audio-visual works as well as training activities, festivals and promotion projects.

Between 2001-2006 more than half a billion Euros were injected into 8,000 projects from over 30 countries. Its successor programme, MEDIA 2007 which runs until 2013, provides 755 million Euros to Europe’s audio-visual industry. MEDIA 2007 has some clearly defined objectives which seek to do the following:

1. Take account of both the importance of the creative process in the European audiovisual sector and the cultural value of Europe’s cinematographic and audiovisual heritage.
2. Strengthen the production structures of small businesses to make the European audiovisual sector more competitive, as they constitute its core. This will mean contributing to the spread of a business culture for the sector and facilitating private investment.

Machel Montano
Machel Montano

3. Reduce imbalances between European countries with a high audiovisual production capacity and countries with low production capacity or a restricted linguistic area. This priority responds to the need to preserve and enhance cultural diversity and inter-cultural dialogue in Europe. It will foster transparency and competition on the single market, and thereby potential economic growth for the whole union.

The EU has also placed a new and strategic focus in its MEDIA 2007 programme on the digital revolution and how the EU should adapt to remain competitive. These are but some of the markers on the other side of the Atlantic.

To emphasise, the EU has never permitted market access commitments in the audio-visual sector and the EPA is no different. What the EPA does provide, according to the officials at the CRNM (Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery), is a legal right to market access involving commercial enterprises in the entertainment sector except audio-visual. What has been agreed is a special Protocol on Cultural Cooper-ation which was seen as an opportunity to extract some development assistance. The CRNM says that in terms of objectives, “the Protocol aims to improve the conditions governing the exchanges of cultural activities, goods and services and redressing the structural imbalances and asymmetrical patterns which may exist in trade in these, between CARIFORUM states and the EU. The Protocol’s starting point is the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.”
The Protocol on Cultural Cooperation is meant to “provide ample room for collaboration to allow access for Caribbean audio- visual material through special mechanisms which broadly defined include the following:

Rikki Jai
Rikki Jai

1. Co-produced audiovisual products and services involving European and Caribbean creative teams (80-20 percent formula for the production budget) will qualify as domestic productions and meet the audiovisual content rules in all EU states and in the Caribbean.
2. Co-production treaties when completed between individual EU states and Caribbean states or region, will make it possible for Caribbean audiovisual producers to access funding for creative projects.

3. Artists and other cultural practitioners (who are not involved in commercial activities in the EU) will be able to enter the EU to collaborate on projects, get training, learn new techniques, engage in production, etc.  They will be allowed to stay in any EU state for periods up to 90 days in any 12-month period.

4. Technical assistance through different measures, such as training, exchange of information, expertise and experiences, and counselling in elaboration of policies and legislation as well as in usage and transfer of technologies and know-how. This support will include co-operation between private companies, non-governmental organisations as well as public-private partnerships.”

The Protocol text therefore needs to be reviewed and discussed with those in the creative sectors to determine what strategies are needed to understand the full implications of its provisions. It means, too, that we have to set our house in order or lose the chance to realise tangible benefits for our creative sectors and audio-visual in particular.

This should begin with a proper assessment of how to use the Protocol. For example, we have to get a snapshot of what Caribbean producers and originators of audio-visual content will require in order to gain better market access to distribution platforms in the EU; find out if there are existing collaborations with EU firms and/or producers; identify possible threats and opportunities for Caribbean producers and distributors; and identify possible areas of collaboration (technical co-operation, co-financing etc).
Several things are needed if the creative sector is to realise any benefit from the EPA

• Local Content. We have to recognize and admit that, for a variety of reasons,  we have developed very little content. If we have little or no output of local content, then we have little or nothing to market.

Bernal (right) signing the EPA agreement with Karl Falkenberg, the Deputy Director General for Trade at the European Commission. To the rear, Kusha Haraksingh, lead negotiator on EPA legal issues with the College of Negotiators.
Bernal (right) signing the EPA agreement with Karl Falkenberg, the Deputy Director General for Trade at the European Commission. To the rear, Kusha Haraksingh, lead negotiator on EPA legal issues with the College of Negotiators.

• Co-production Agreements. Apart from Jamaica which has an agreement with the UK, the region has no co-production agreements with EU countries. The experts say that even the Jamaica-UK agreement is not forward looking with one glaring omission being new media, animation etc.

• Financing. There are few financing instruments for the creative sectors and even less for audio-visuals. The Protocol suggests that Caribbean producers can access EU funds once bilateral agreements are concluded with the Europeans.

• Incentives. As with financial instruments, there is very little in the public policy space to encourage investment in the audio-visual sector. In T&T, a tax benefit to companies which support cultural/creative projects is yet to be implemented.

• Culture Policy. We need regional harmonised policies in the areas of culture, media and telecommunications.
In a recent briefing on the EPA and opportunities for the audio-visual sector, a CRNM official contended that the region has a two to five year window to get into the game.  We are way behind on the policy and regulatory fronts so if all these pronouncements about the competitive advantage of our creative sectors are to mean anything, then we have to move to put our collective houses in order.

Given the collapse of the traditional commodities and financial markets, there could be no better time to turn inward and support the creative sectors that are homegrown and which can provide new avenues for sustainable growth. Industry must now aggressively roll out discussions in conjunction with our culture, technology, investment and trade officials to figure out what we want to extract out of this done EPA deal.

On the policy front, this is the time for our politicos to champion medium and long term measures in support of the knowledge-based or creative economy. More importantly, they have to ensure that National Indicative Programmes of the region place creative industries at the centre of our development agenda.

If nothing else, the EPA has highlighted two things. One is the weakness of our domestic cultural policies and measures to support our creative sectors; the other is technology and the pace at which our trading partners are dominating the market with new generations of distribution models fraught with possibilities but also threats for the unwary and unprepared. We are presented now with an opportunity to correct these imbalances since hopefully we better understand the critical impact of trade agreements on content industries at the regional and global level.

The EPA may have been seen by some as a happy ever after fairy tale, to boost the fortunes of creators and creative enterprises (mainly micro and small) all with a desire to survive the corporate filter that has all but killed local content and creativity. But possibilities will remain exactly those…possibilities…if we do not move to decisive and strategic action.

With all the ‘sexiness’ around creative industries, this might just well also be the time for the region to recognise that our cultural sectors not only add value to our tourism sectors but may very well be the key to developing a new and sustainable brand of tourism product that protects our fragile island environments. Topic for another time!
Josanne Leonard is the director of Miribai Communications and a media and entertainment consultant. – miribai@tstt.net.tt