Regulação de conteúdo no GATS: fronteiras entre serviços de telecomunicação e audiovisual e os interesses brasileiros

Abstract

This thesis analyses the impact of technological convergence at the current classification of the communications sector at the GATS and to which extent it changes the commitments made by the WTO Members at the telecommunications and audiovisual services, in particular regarding audiovisual content. In addition, it examines the Brazilian interests regarding governmental initiatives for audiovisual content regulation. Based on the professional experience of the author at the WTO and the communications sector in Brazil, a considerable amount of foreign and Brazilian literature about the proposed subject and conversations with Brazilian negotiators at the WTO, the thesis firstly analyses the basic structure of the GATS, contextualizes its negotiations, pointing out the motivations to include the communications sector and verifies its organizational architecture, which is fundamental to preserve the flexibility granted to WTO Members. Secondly, it discusses the treatment given to the communications sector, mainly to the subsectors of telecommunications and audiovisual, as well as the differences and correlations among those subsectors. It also verifies practical examples of the impact of technological convergence and the internet at the sector. Thirdly, it addresses GATS provisions preserving Members capacity to choose regulatory policies. The work analyses article VI (4) which guarantees the balance between WTO commercial liberalization and the right to preserve Members regulatory capacity. Also, it addresses the domestic regulation concept at the GATS and at Brazilian and foreign laws in order to understand the extent of audiovisual content regulation at the referred agreement and whether audiovisual content should be treated in a special way. In this sense, it studies the distinction between cultural and economic approaches defended respectively by the European Union and the USA and the influence of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions on the commitments made for audiovisual services, even without being part of the GATS. Fourthly, it shows the current GATS scenario on audiovisual content by examining the European and the US legal frameworks, including content quotas, and the influence of said frameworks at the negotiations, including as per the Members proposals submitted at the Doha Round. It also verifies that there are few commitments and many exemptions to the MNF clause listed in the National Schedules of specific commitments, therein included the Brazilian schedule for the communications sector. The thesis also discusses certain decisions of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body which could be used in future disputes related to the sector. Finally, it addresses the Brazilian legal framework on audiovisual content, identifying the effects of convergence, and examines whether the current legal framework supports the changes caused by convergence. In this sense, the work analyses the role of regulatory agencies and ministries ruling on the communications sector in Brazil vis à vis the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and access to information so as to understand the relation between content and regulation and to verify which situations justify content regulation. In this context, it verifies the Brazilian content quotas initiative.