Book excerpt: The trade and culture debate has been a long tension without a definite result. It has been widely argued that neither the existing WTO regulatory framework nor the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression (UNESCO CDCE) can address the debate. More recently, some new emerging domains in the digital age, including digital technology and intellectual property rights, have posted crucial challenges as well. These new trends invite the careful reconsideration of the role of law, the dominant legal responses and regulatory approaches, however they have not been paid due attention. To this end, this paper attempts to investigate a possibly more adaptive regulatory approach for the trade and culture debate under the changed regulatory environment. Compared with cultural industries, it appears that creative industries tend to more properly reflect the status quo of the current economy, and the concept of creative economy could be employed as the concept to design a new regulatory approach for the debate in the digital age. Building upon this, the global governance debate seems to be a holistic approach for the trade and culture debate in the digital age. For the WTO regulatory framework, a two-steps approach could be considered. The first step is to formulae the 'creative economy' as a legal concept, followed by the second step of introducing the concept into the WTO regulatory framework. It is suggested that such approach could be a more adaptive and coherent regulatory approach for the trade and culture debate in the digital age.