Photo © Joakim Honkasalo

On April 25, 2019, the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) issued its comments and recommendations to Global Affairs Canada in the context of the consultation on Canada’s Future World Trade Organization (WTO) Negotiations on E-Commerce.

The emergence of electronic commerce is no longer recent and the members of the WTO have been discussing the opportunity for comprehensive trade negotiations in this area for more than 20 years now. However, the commercial framework has progressed through bilateral or plurilateral agreements in recent years, while national regulatory initiatives are few in number, incomplete and slow to be launched.

The CDCE asks the Canadian government to ensure that the cultural sector is exempt from possible WTO negotiations on e-commerce. The CDCE makes 11 recommendations to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the context of these possible negotiations.