WTO 서비스보조금 논의와 문화산업

This study attempted to review the meaning of international trade law on subsidies being made in the field of cultural industries. However, with no multilateral rules on service subsidies currently in existence, and discussions through the Working Party on GATS’s Rules being blocked, the discussion on service subsidies provided to cultural industries is bound to be limited. Nevertheless, the discussion is meaningful because it is necessary to review problems that may arise when various policies currently supported to the cultural industries are evaluated in accordance with existing trade laws and to prepare policies to reduce the possibility of future conflicts. At this level, this study conducted an overall analysis of service subsidies in Chapter 2, and based on this, Chapter 3 addressed the conformity of international trade law on subsidies related to the cultural industries. Through this analysis, the following points should be noted in the discussion of service subsidies in the cultural industries. First, the multilateral trade law that directly deals with subsidies and various support policies provided to cultural industries do not yet exist, so close consideration is required on whether they fall under the “subsidy” and whether they are “specific” under the premise of applying the current SCM agreement. Second, it is also necessary to consider the improvement of existing SCM agreements as well as the discussion of service subsidies in the WPGR currently being held through the WTO. Finally, it is also necessary to consider discussing service subsidies in bilateral and regional trade agreements that can complement the absence of multilateral rules in the reality that most of the service subsidies are related to cultural industries such as audiovisual services. As such, discipline through bilateral and regional trade agreements will serve as a practical criterion to more directly determine the conformity with international trade law on subsidies and support policies in the cultural industry until multilateral trade laws governing future service subsidies emerge.