문화다양성협약과 WTO협정 사이의 상호지지적인 관계정립을 위하여 -관계정립조항의 해석을 중심으로-

Abstract

The Cultural Diversity Convention is not an instrument solely intended to protect the so-called cultural sovereignty. It aims to build a trade norm fairly regulating trade in cultural goods and services, which even the United States recognizes as having unique characteristics such as the possibility of unlimited copying and its relationship to cultural identity of nations. The UNESCO process removed from the INCP draft the duty to maintain ‘balance' with respect to foreign cultural material, and together with it, a binding dispute resolution procedure. As such, the convention has somewhat lost its teeth as a trade norm. At any rate, the Convention, befitting its role as a trade norm, prescribes for itself a relationship of equality to existing treaties including the WTO treaties. The relationship of equality can be accommodated by generous use of Article 31(3) of the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaty requiring interpretation of a treaty to take into account ‘any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties.' Such relationship of equality to existing treaties has been established already in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the International Treaty on Plant and Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the U.S.-Shrimp, E.C.-Asbestos, E.C.-Biotech Products decisions have shown how one treaty can influence interpretation and application of another treaty. It is the author's wish that the Convention and the WTO treaties follow this tradition to establish a relationship of mutual supportiveness and that of taking into account of each other.