Lights,Camera,Quotas! : French seek to continue restricting U.S. films

French films have charmed, entertained and inspired over the years. But do they deserve the special protection that France provides by limiting the importation of movies and other audiovisual products? The French say oui , for the sake of culture. Au contraire , counters Hollywood, which wants unfettered access for its films, TV programs, videos and sound recordings. Who’s right?

Open markets best serve consumers and industry. Protectionism, even when it’s veiled in the glamour of French stars like Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu, is a bad script for both box office receipts and cultural relations.

In Geneva, the French are trying mightily to exempt all audiovisual products from a new world trade agreement on services being negotiated under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. France and other European Community nations already have quotas on foreign broadcasting materials and films. An exemption would allow import restrictions to continue.

U.S. filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese recently made the unusual move of issuing statements decrying any restrictions or quotas on audiovisual materials. President Clinton has said that audiovisuals must not be singled out for restrictions.

The American film, television and home video industries generate $18 billion in foreign sales yearly. That is $4 billion more than U.S. purchases of foreign audiovisuals. Without quotas in Western Europe, the market would be even greater.

France and its fellow EC members maintain that limits are needed for the sake of cultural preservation. The French--concerned that opening markets would mean the end of its small, government-subsidized film industry--say works of art should not be subject to crass commercial competition like mere commodities.

The issue isn’t French culture or even subsidies. In the case of audiovisuals, French subsidies are not subverting free trade. The issue is import restrictions. Let French audiences decide for themselves what’s good, bad or ugly.