WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3732/97 by Yves VERWAERDE to the Commission. General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS)
Date: 1997-11-21
Institutions: European Parliament, VERWAERDE
Subjects: Canada, United States, World Trade Organisation, audiovisual co-production, audiovisual industry, bilateral agreement, distributive trades, market access, multilateral agreement, opt-out clause

8. 6. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 174/109

The  Commission  would  like  to  stress  that  all  the  fire  parameters  foreseen  in  Decision  94/611/EC,  including
smoke production, have been retained, the latter being one of the five parameters to be measured in the (cid:145)single
burning item(cid:146) test. In addition, the international standard ISO 9705 has been maintained as the reference scenario
for the whole classification system.

The Commission considers that the European classification system, based on the European standards describing
the six test methods, will cover all necessary fire risk elements and provide sufficient discrimination between
construction  products.  The  system  will  also  respect  the  right  of  Member  States  to  regulate  building  safety
according to their different traditions, and to set appropriate levels of safety for their citizens.

(1)  OJ L 241, 16.9.1994.
(2)  OJ L 40, 11.2.1989.

(98/C 174/169)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3732/97

by Yves Verwaerde (PPE) to the Commission

(21 November 1997)

Subject: General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS)

Would the Commission inform me of the state of progress in implementing these agreements in the audiovisual
sector?

Answer given by Sir Leon Brittan on behalf of the Commission

(23 December 1997)

As  a  result  of  the  Uruguay  round  the  Community  and  its  Member  States  did  not  undertake  any  specific
commitments  on  market  access  (MA)  and  national  treatment  (NT)  on  audio-visual  services.  In  addition,
exemptions to the General agreement on trade in services (GATS) most-favoured nation (MFN) obligation (1)
were undertaken in order to preserve works of European origin; the possibility to maintain bilateral or plurilateral
agreements  on  coproduction  of  audiovisual  works  in  relation  to  distribution  and  access  to  funding;  and,
European support programmes such as the action plan for advanced television services, MEDIA or Eurimages.
Therefore,  the  Community  and  its  Member  States  have  no  specific  MA  and  NT  obligations  to  apply  GATS
principles or commitments in the field of audio-visual services.

Furthermore, only a very limited number of World trade organisation (WTO) countries have commitments on
audio-visual  services  and  many  have  in  addition  taken  MFN  exemptions.  The  only  problems  on  the
implementation of those commitments raised so far are:

(i)  United  States:  on  15  February  1997,  the  United  States  undertook  an  MFN  exemption  on  satellite
transmission of direct to home, digital broadcast services and digital audio services in the framework of the
GATS  agreement  on  basic  telecommunications.  The  Community  indicated  at  the  time  that  this  MFN
exemption was in conflict with the American obligations on audio-visual services under the GATS. It is not
possible to predict yet whether the United States will take any measures in this sense, since the Agreement on
basic telecoms only enters into force on 1 January 1998. In any case, the Community reserved its rights as to
possibly challenging that MFN exemption in the future.

(ii)  Canada:  although  Canada  undertook  no  specific  MA  and  NT  commitments  on  audio-visual  services  and
protected  some  audio-visual  activities  through  MFN  exemption,  this  exemption  does  not  protect  film
distribution activities. Therefore Canada is bound to the MFN obligation for film distribution services. The
Commission is currently analysing the case of an European film distributor (Polygram) which claims to be
suffering  a  discrimination  in  Canada  vis-a‘-vis  American  distributors  of  film.  The  Commission  and  the
Member  States  have  had  informal  consultations  with  the  Canadian  government  in  order  to  clarify  this
situation and analysis continues.

The  Commission  is  not  aware  of  any  further  problems  of  application  of  the  GATS  agreement  in  relation  to
audio-visual services.

(1)  This obligation applies unless it is specifically excluded, even if there are no specific commitments for a given sector.