Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, has attacked a proposed international pact that would give governments more power to protect their own country’s artistic heritage. “He called the draft text a trade document designed to give governments power to protect such interests as a country’s film producers by keeping down foreign competition – not a protection for individual artists. Artists should have full freedom to share their work throughout the world, he said. ‘As I read it, it gives central governments the right to protection by prohibiting imports’.”