The Canadian Magazine Dispute Case Study

The Canadian Magazine Dispute began when Canada’s attempts to protect its culture through the production of magazines turned into a trade dispute with the United States. Canada tried to protect their culture through magazine production by establishing tariffs and prohibitions on foreign magazines. This caused American magazine producers to begin creating split-run editions of Canadian magazines. In 1995, Canada raised taxes on spilt-run publications which violated the World Trade Organization’s principle of non-discrimination between foreign and domestic producers.(www.globalization101.org) When the WTO ruled Canada tax on foreign publications was discriminatory Canada accepted the decision. Later in the 1998 Canada tried a new method to protect it magazine industry by creating Bill C-55 which prohibited foreign publishers from supplying advertising services to Canadian market. (www.about.com)This only created new problems in trade between Canada and the United States. This disputes were later settle with a new modified versions of the bill that both countries agreed to.

I think the U.S.- Canadian magazine dispute was not greatly motivated by the desire to protect the Canadian culture, but mostly motivated by the desire to save the Canadian magazine industry. If Canada was

This was due to the fact that most of the magazines that were been sold in Canada were of foreign publishers and not of Canadian publishers. Also most Canadians preferred buying foreign magazines over Canadian ones which decrease their sales. The Canadian government tried to boost the sales of the Canadian magazines by imposing higher taxes on foreign magazines. The financial interest of the Canadian magazine industry was the main reason for most of the Canadian government’s actions against foreign magazine