Glickman Extols Free Trade, Urges More Measured Debate

Tue. Apr. 29, 2008


The head of the trade group for one of the leading U.S. exporters — the Hollywood motion pictures industry — waded into the contentious free trade debate Monday, saying the topic has become too political and urging a more measured approach.

Motion Picture Association of America chief Dan Glickman, a Kansas Democrat who served nine terms in the House and was Agriculture secretary under former President Clinton, told the National Press Club that the benefits and drawbacks of such deals have been “oversold” by fans and foes and “the truth, like most things in politics and government, lies somewhere in the middle.”

Glickman and other Clinton administration vets recently put in their support for the Colombia deal. He also called criticism of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement by Democratic presidential contenders Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois “so extreme.”

Without free and fair trade, Glickman said the United States risks slower economic and employment growth. He warned that other countries would be “more than happy to supplant us politically if we do not engage the world economically.”

Film is a good example of the benefits of international trade, he said, noting that the MPAA’s members rely on foreign revenue and almost 60 percent of major studios’ box office and home video receipts come from non-U.S. markets.

During his speech, Glickman said he recognized the importance of hot-button issues like worker rights, human rights, and intellectual property rights, but said the political stand-off must end.

“It’s time for a new debate about trade policy,” he said. “From domestic economics to world hunger and global stability, the stakes are too high to continue at this impasse.” He said new markets and new customers will drive U.S. growth and competitiveness.

On the intellectual property protection front, Glickman lauded his trade group’s relationship with law enforcement agencies around the globe but said counterfeiting remains an imposing problem.

IP industries account for half of the U.S. gross domestic product and MPAA members spend tens of millions of dollars annually on technological and policy solutions aimed at protecting their investments, he said.

The Internet has brought “extraordinary opportunities” to the entertainment industry but has served as a powerful conduit for piracy, Glickman said.

IP protection should be a bedrock principle of the Internet’s future, but he recognized that there is “no simple, one-size-fits-all solution” for public policy issues in the digital age. Similar to trade, he called for stakeholders to “move past the extreme rhetoric” and spend less time “talking about what we’re against.”

China, which was flagged as one of the world’s worst IP offenders in a Friday report by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, is “a difficult nut to crack,” even as pressure on the country’s government increases in the months before the Olympic Games.

He predicted that as the games near, the streets of Beijing will be freer from bootlegged items but curbing the fake goods trade in the long term was a tougher problem.

by Andrew Noyes

Tue. Apr. 29, 2008