Frankly, My Dear America, We Don’t Give a Damn: Comparing Chinese And European Trade Barriers to American Audiovisual Works and the American Response

Abstract

For Hollywood film studios, strict Chinese regulations controlling the importation and distribution of foreign audiovisual works within China have made the Chinese audiovisual market as impenetrable as the Great Wall. Recently, in China—Measures Affecting Trading Rights, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ordered China to relax its barriers to foreign films. China has yet to comply with the order, causing ongoing protest by the United States. Meanwhile, the United States has long tolerated Television Without Frontiers, a European Union (EU) Directive that imposes local content quotas that restrict the amount of non-European programming aired on television. This Note compares the Chinese regulations with the EU Directive, and the corresponding American responses. It theorizes that the U.S. position against Television Without Frontiers has been strengthened by China—Measures Affecting Trading Rights, and that the United States should take a uniformly aggressive stance against foreign barriers to audiovisual trade to protect Hollywood’s interests abroad.