Film Restrictions Under GATT

* Re “Lights, Camera, Quotas!” editorial, Oct. 24: It seems necessary to us to firmly state that there are no quotas on importation of foreign films to France but a limit to the number of the foreign films which can be broadcast by the French TV channels. Today, 60% of the films broadcast by the TV channels must be European Community-made, and the rest may be provided by any country in the world, but note also that there are neither quotas for movie screening in theaters, nor quotas for video rentals and sales! This TV broadcasting rule was established to protect European production, not to attack any particular country. Can we seriously speak of “limits” or “restrictions” when American movies already account for more than 70% of the total European movie revenues and when American movie sales are still growing (for example, in France, from 31% in 1980 up to 57% in 1990).

The Europeans also questioned the strong American opposition to the idea of “cultural exception” within the audiovisual GATT, as this same idea has been accepted by the United States in the NAFTA agreement, notably with Canada. If the Americans already understand that their power can crush the culture of smaller states, why would this exception then be refused to Europe, which is handicapped by a lingually divided market with 25 major languages and dozens of other regional languages?

The American media used on a large scale the statement of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese (about film quotas) but kept a candid silence on the appeal of more than 4,000 European actors and producers, not only French ones like Claude Berri, Claude Lelouche, Gerard Depardieu . . . but also the British Jeremy Thomas, the Spanish Pedro Almodovar, the Polish Agneszka Holland, the German Wim Wenders, the Russian Nikita Mikhalkov, the Italian Francesco Rosi, etc. Let’s come back to Claude Berri’s words in his own response to Spielberg and Scorsese: “Dear friends, do not let those who invest in your films take advantage of you. We are not protectionists. Freedom of expression is as important to us as it is to you. We are simply demanding one sole right: to exist and thus to be able to continue to communicate with you.”

JEROME CHAMPAGNE

Deputy Consul General

French Consul, Los Angeles