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The Washington Post Company Jul 22, 1993
France's former culture minister today said France would veto a GATT
treaty if the United States insists on making film, music and other
artistic products part of world trade negotiations.
In New York to speak to the 7,000 industry representatives and
artists at the annual New Music Seminar, Jack Lang told reporters: "We
won't barter or compromise film and music against maritime or
agricultural products... . We won't swap cinema for cars.
"There will be no compromise on this subject, we won't bargain. We {France} will exercise our veto if necessary," said Lang.
Lang, who served as culture minister until a center-right coalition
took over the French government this year, retained his Socialist seat
in the National Assembly.
He said his successor shares his views on culture and trade.
"On this subject, there's not a left or right in France," he said.
"The new government has adopted the same policies as I've been defending
for 10 years."
Lang said the United
States, pushed by Jack Valenti, who heads the Motion Picture Association
of America, argues that the European Community directive requiring the
12 member nations to produce at least 50 percent of their television
programming creates a trade barrier to American films.
But Lang said this directive, called "Television Without Borders,"
was intended not to impede trade but to promote and encourage original
European production, "to establish true competition between the United
States and Europe."
Without it, he
said, television productions from the United States - already amortized
through U.S. sales and therefore sold more cheaply in Europe than
original productions - would engulf the market.
Lang said that already U.S. film companies own theaters in Europe and
account for more than half the films shown in Europe and at least half
the television programming.
"Valenti is too greedy," he said. "What's he complaining about? The debate is surrealist."
Lang said the United States had already excluded cultural products
such as films and music from the North American Free Trade Agreement
treaty with Canada. "It's a precedent," he said, adding Europe should be
able to expect the same cultural exclusion.
In his speech to the music group, Lang urged the United States to
recognize the "moral right" of artists to prohibit the use of their
works against their wishes. He said John Huston, for example, had
successfully prevented the colorization of the film "Asphalt Jungle" in
France even though he did not own distribution rights.
He said American filmmakers such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg
and Martin Scorsese had joined the fight for artists' "moral right" in
the United States. "The moral right has one virtue," said Lang. "It
states that a record, a song, is not a product like a car, a toothpaste
or a bar of soap."
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