Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 13:54:32 -0400
From: Sam Lanfranco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: MAI returns to centre stage
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The Guardian (London) September
10, 1998
MOVE TO REVIVE WORLD PACT
Larry Elliott
A fresh attempt to secure a global deal to liberalise rules
governing investment will begin in Paris next month, the head of the
West's leading think-tank said yesterday.
Donald Johnston, secretary-general of the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development, said that the Multilateral
Agreement on Investment - dubbed by opponents a charter for
multinationals - would not be abandoned.
Three years of protracted and increasingly acrimonious
discussions were suspended in April when it became clear that there were
irreconcilable differences between the OECD's 29 member governments,
representing the world's leading industrial nations. But Mr. Johnston
said yesterday that the MAI was "very important for the long-term
development of developing nations".
After a six-month break, a new chairman for the talks has been
lined up, but the OECD has not set a deadline for their completion. "It
is very difficult to put a completion date on negotiations of this
complexity," Mr. Johnston said, adding that the MAI had become the
"lightning rod for anti-globalisation forces around the world".
The Paris-based OECD believes that creating a "level playing
field" for international investment will prevent national governments
from discriminating against foreign firms, and by increasing the flow of
funds will speed up growth and create jobs.
However, opponents of the MAI argue it will allow multi-nationals to
ride roughshod over democratically-elected governments, preventing
politicians from refusing access to multinationals, giving corporations
the right to sue administrations that cost them profits and threatening
any attempts to introduce workplace or environmental legislation.
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