On March 18, 2007 the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions entered into force. The adoption of the Convention in 2005 was the outcome of a chain of various “culture and trade conflicts” which included various issues, such as the role of Article IV GATT 1947, the emergence of satellite broadcasting in the 1960s, the dispute over audiovisual services towards the end of the Uruguay Round negotiations, and the WTO Dispute Settlement Body’s rulings in the Canada Periodicals case. These conflicts evolved at the same pace as technological progress was made especially in the field of the cultural industries, i.e. various cultural goods and services including cinematograph films, video and sound recordings, television programmes and publications. As a common feature, the underlying regulatory problems related to these industries are mainly caused by the dual, i.e. economic and cultural, nature of cultural products. It is thus the duality of the cultural industries that gives rise to difficult problems with regard to their legal classification and treatment, as they are not only important economic factors in international trade but also the principal vectors of cultural identity and cultural diversity. Thus, it is this dual nature that requires a common consideration of the two areas of culture and trade. Both areas are, however, subject to a distinct substantive legal regime as well as a different institutional framework under international law. The separation between culture and trade is strongly reflected in the institutional separation and absence of direct legal ties between the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the one hand, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the other. It was this gap between the regimes of culture and of trade that the Convention was initially designed to close.