Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

CHAPTER5Internationaltrade in creative goodsand services: Global trends and features5.1 Setting the sceneGlobal and regional trade flows of creative goods andservices encompass trade transactions with complex interactionsamong culture, economics and technology.Likewise, trade is framed within the rules and practices ofthe world trading system. This framework includes the universallyaccepted multilateral rules governing trade amongmembers of the WTO and other legal provisions for freetrade agreements, custom unions and economic partnershipagreements. Trade rules for the creative industry may also beinfluenced by other legal instruments, such as theUNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity, at the regionallevel as well as by specific agreements dealing with culturaltrade exchanges and intellectual property rights regimes.With the emergence of the creative economy and itsgrowing contribution to world trade, issues relating to theinterface between international trade policies and nationalcultural objectives are gaining prominence in the economicdevelopment agenda. The current round of multilateraltrade negotiations aimed at further trade liberalizationremained inconclusive so far in 2010. The global financialand economic crisis has heightened tensions between tradeand development policies, making it clear that the multilateraltrading system needs careful reassessment bearing inmind the imperatives of the MDGs. Poorly coordinatedtrade, financial and monetary policies have made developingcountries more vulnerable, often leading to protectionistmeasures on behalf of domestic markets and industrieshit by the crisis. The Doha Round was expected to redressthese imbalances, but the multilateral negotiations areshifting away from a development agenda.Against this background, chapter 5 presents a pictureof international trade flows of creative goods and servicesin global markets for the period 2002-2008. UNC-TAD complemented and enriched this trade analysis withevidence showing the possible variation of tariffs escalationapplied in major markets for international trade of creativegoods, which are examined in chapter 9 in the section coveringissues related to the multilateral trading system. Theanalysis can assist developing countries in formulating tradepolicies and negotiating tariff cuts for market access withtheir trade partners. In summary, the purpose of this chapteris to identify the main features inherent to each creativeindustry and to assist developing countries in assessing theactual and potential economic impact of their creativeindustries for trade and development gains.The trade analysis presented here builds upon thefirst global comparative analysis in the Creative EconomyReport 2008. Over the last two years, efforts have beenmade to improve the quality and coverage of the initial statisticaldata, and factual information on market developmentsfor each creative industry has been expanded.Nevertheless, visible gaps remain due to the lack of a moreappropriate methodology to collect and report the widerange of quantitative and qualitative data, as described inchapter 4. Attention is drawn not only to what the figuresshow, but also to what they are not yet able to capture.Although imperfect, the trade data give an indication ofmarket trends and major trade flows, showing the key playersfor each category of creative industries. This workmakes a contribution towards improving market transparency.However, much more needs to be done at thenational and international levels to provide better tools toassist governments in policy formulation and provide aclear understanding of the dynamics of the creative productsin world markets for the creative community.A key issue in approaching trade features is to examinehow creative industries generate value from cross-bordertrade and what the backward and forward linkages arein the value chain of each creative-industry subgroup so asto properly assess its impact for both the exporting and5International trade in creative goods and services: Global trends and featuresCREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010125