AMERICA'S PIE -Trade and Culture after 9/11 *NEW

America's Pie
Trade and Culture After 9/11
Jock Given

A BRIEFINGS book: A series of topical books exploring social, political and cultural issues in contemporary Australia.

When the negotiations to create the World Trade Organisation were almost complete, one of the last items on the table was 'audiovisual services' - film, television, new media and other cultural products. They weren't the most important products economically, but they were among the most contentious.
A decade later, the global trading system is in crisis. Multilateral negotiations have stalled, and the trend is towards bilateral and regional trade deals - deals like Australia's proposed free trade agreement with the United States. The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 did not initiate this trend, but they accentuated it. Bilateral and regional agreements, especially involving the world's economic and audiovisual superpower, are very different places to be negotiating the treatment of cultural activities. 
This book explores the relationship between free trade and culture in the creative economy of the early twenty-first century, and argues that the era after 9/11 could be a decisive historical moment in an age-old contest.