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Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 16:48:02 -0400
From: "Janet M. Eaton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: FYI -What is the MAI? Quotes Pro & Con- (13 pp)
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http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/1962
WHAT IS THE MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT (MAI)?
- Quotes from the proponents and the concerned
Prepared by Janet M Eaton, Systemic Change Agent, Educator,
Researcher and Writer and Public Policy Consultant.
January 19, 1997 [[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Prepared for general use and for the Nova Scotia
Network for Creative Change Website (launch Feb. 1998) ,
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Index:
I) Voices of Proponents
a) From websites of proponents
b) Excerpts from quotes compiled by the Preamble Collaborative
II) Voices of Concern
a) From websites of concerned groups
b) From books, public policy papers, briefs, newspaper, articles etc
c) Quotes from individuals and institutes whose perspectives are
changing or have changed.
d) Excerpts from quotes compiled by the Preamble Collaborative
Acronyms:
MAI Multilateral Agreement on Investment
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
USCIB United States Council for International Business
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development
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I) Voices of proponents
a) From their websites:
1) Government of Canada Website: An Introduction to the MAI
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/english/trade/backgr-e.htm
An Introduction to the MAI: The Origins and Progress of the MAI
The MAI is being negotiated under the auspices of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Membership in the OECD
includes most of the world's industrialized democracies, including the
United States and Canada, most European countries, Japan, New Zealand,
Australia, Mexico and Korea.
In 1995, Canada, together with other OECD member countries agreed to
negotiate a Multilateral Agreement on Investment. The central purpose of
this agreement is to provide a broad multilateral framework of agreed
principles and commitments governing the treatment of foreign investment so
that all countries can participate on an equal footing in the international
marketplace for investment. An investment agreement negotiated among the
OECD countries would set a high standard of investment protection and
establish the basis for a wider agreement embracing many more countries.....
2) Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development [OECD] Website:
http://www.oecd.org/daf/cmis/mai/faqmai.htm
The Multilateral Agreement on Investment
Frequently asked questions and answers
1. What is the MAI?
"The MAI is the first attempt to combine in an international agreement
multilateral disciplines on the three corner-stone areas of FDI
rule-making, namely investment protection, investment liberalization
and dispute settlement.
Its objective is to provide a "level playing field" for international
investors, with uniform rules on both market access and legal
security. It aims at eliminating distortions to investment flows and
facilitating a more efficient allocation of economic resources.
The MAI is conceived as a free-standing international treaty open to
all OECD Members and the European Communities, and to accession
by non-Member countries willing and able to meet its obligations.
Negotiations were launched by the OECD Member countries at the
May 1995 Ministerial Meeting."
3) OECD Website
http://www.oecd.org/daf/cmis/mai/dymond.htm
The Main Substantive Provisions of the MAI
W.A. Dymond, Chief Negotiator for Canada
MAI briefing for non-OECD countries
7 September 1997 - Paris, France
"This is not the corporate agenda we are negotiating. This is a
government agenda we are negotiating _ to negotiate and apply
investment rules and level the playing field.
We are seeking to replace the partial, piecemeal and largely
unsatisfactory rules that now govern foreign investment with
more comprehensive and widely accepted rules.
The irony is that unless governments set the rules of foreign
investment and do so in a coherent and coordinated way bound by
international law, multinational enterprises will set their own
rules and those rules will come at a heavy price.
This is not a charter for corporations to evade environmental laws,
to exploit labour, or to invade critical areas of national endeavour
such as cultural or social policies.
It is in fact the opposite. So long as governments set the rules,
they will ensure that areas of national endeavour are nourished and
protected.
The MAI is an opportunity to negotiate a multilateral agreement based
on the rules of non-discrimination which have fostered the enormous
and hugely beneficial expansion of international trade in goods and
services over almost 50 years.
Its beneficiaries will be, not just businesses in the global economy,
but the millions of ordinary citizens whose savings and pension funds
make up the bulk of investment. They deserve a set of rules which are
as clear and transparent as those long applied in international trade.
4) OECD MAI Home Page:
http://www.oecd.org/daf/cmis/mai/mai.htm
Since the launching of negotiations in 1995, major progress has
been made in developing a Multilateral Agreement on Investment
(MAI) which would provide a comprehensive framework for international
investment with high standards of liberalization and investment
protection, and with effective dispute settlement procedures.
The scope of the MAI is to cover all forms of investment coming
from MAI investors, including the cross-border establishment of
enterprises, the activities of established foreign-owned or controlled
enterprises, portfolio investment and intangible assets. The
treatment and protection of investors and investments calls for fair
and non-discriminatory treatment of foreign investors, and an
effective dispute settlement mechanism.
Special topics dealt with in the MAI include performance requirements,
investment incentives, temporary stay and work of investors and key
personnel, privatization and monopolies. Environment and labour issues
and the OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises also Figure
prominently in the negotiations.
The MAI will have its own institutional arrangements. It should
be compatible with other international agreements, including the
International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, and
should not create obligations on Parties that conflict with
their obligations under those agreements.
Final agreement will depend on achieving a satisfactory scope and
balance of commitments among the negotiating parties, including
agreement on general exceptions, temporary safeguards and country-
specific exceptions or reservations.
The MAI is to be a free standing treaty, open to accession by non-
Members who are willing and able to meet its obligations. An active
dialogue with non-Members has been sustained through the
negotiations, including regular briefings in Paris, and regional
meetings for Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Baltic countries.
Consultations have also been held with representatives of business,
labour and NGOs."
---------------
b) Other quotes from proponents: as compiled by the Preamble
Collaborative (US based Policy Centre)
[The MAI in the Words of Framers, Proponents and Opponents:
A compilation of notable quotes on the MAI.]
http://www.RTK.NET:80/preamble/mai/maihome.html
"When concluded, the MAI will become the next pillar in the global
system of trade, finance, and investment".
- USCIB-
"The agreement will be based on a standstill agreement and a rollback
principle: the parties will not be entitled to add non-conforming
measures once the agreement has been signed. They will only be
entitled to liberalize in the future.
- Marinus W. Sikkel, Ministry of Economics, the Netherlands and
MAI working group member-
"Unlike earlier efforts to forge a multilateral investment accord,
the MAI is intended to address a comprehensive range of investment
issues, have a broad geographical scope, and provide for further
liberalization of investment regimes."
- USCIB-
"We are writing the constitution of a single global economy."
- Renato Ruggerio, Director General of the World Trade Organization-
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II) Voices of concern
a) From their websites:
1) National Centre for Sustainaiblity Websiste:
http://www.islandnet.com/~ncfs/maisite/
"The MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT (MAI)
being negotiated since 1995 in Paris by the 29 member nations of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is to be
ready for ratification in April 1998. The Agreement is intended to remove
obstacles to international investment among its signatories by eliminating
investor (corporate) performance requirements and discriminatory treatment
of investors by host nations. It incorporates a powerful dispute resolution
system which would allow any investor to sue the government of its host
nation if it considers laws or regulations to be discriminatory and
detrimental to immediate or projected profits. The Agreement would
therefore disable regional development and national measures to protect
the well-being of people, create employment, safeguard small business,
conserve resources and protect the environment. Once signed, the MAI
cannot be denounced for five years. Investments under the MAI would
remain protected for a further fifteen years.
The parties negotiating the MAI represent corporate interests exclusively.
Consequently the MAI is a matter of great concern to organizations
dedicated to protecting democracy, human rights and the environment.
2) The U.S. based Preamble Collaborative:
http://www.RTK.NET:80/preamble/mai/maihome.html
" Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI): A sweeping new
international economic agreement currently under negotiation, the
MAI would amplify key provisions of the North American Free Trade
Agreement and apply them worldwide. Despite the agreement's
potentially profound implications, and the advanced stage of
negotiations, few among the general public have even heard of the
MAI. The agreement is hailed by business groups and government
officials as a boost to investment and jobs, but assailed by critics
as a major threat to living standards, environmental protection, and
essential corporate regulations. The MAI could be before the U.S.
Congress as early as the spring of 1998.
---------------
b) From books, public policy papers, briefs, newspaper articles etc.
with web references where possible.
1) From Clarke and Barlow, 1997. MAI: The Threat to Canadian
Sovereignty. Canada: Stoddard. ISBN 0-7737-5946-8
In 1998 the nations of the world including Canada, celebrate the 50th
annual anniversary of the United Nation's historic Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. This Declaration marked a watershed in
the long international quest to assert the supremacy of human and
citizen rights over political or economic tyranny of any kind.
Together with the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights , the Declaration stood and stands as a 20th century
Magna Carta.
But in 1998, the richest nations of the world, including Canada, are
also poised to ratify a treaty that will grant so much power to
transational corporations and stateless global capital that the
democratic rights granted to the people of the world by the UN
Declaration will be seriously compromised . The Multilateral Agreement
on Investment (MAI) is the culmination of a global assault, in the
name of commercial freedom, on those social rights and on the
commitments to ecological stewardship made by the world's nations at
the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
The MAI , if ratified , will serve as a Charter of Rights and Freedoms
for transational corporations against citizens and the earth, and
represents a grave threat to democracy in Canada and around the world.
(Clarke & Barlow, 1997 p. 7-8)
2) "MAI-Day! The Corporate Rule Treaty: The Multilateral Agreement on
Investments (MAI)Seeks to Consolidate Global Corporate Rule" by
Tony Clarke. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/mai.html
Excerpt from the preamble to his paper:
"....the MAI is designed to establish a whole new set of global rules
for investment that will grant transnational corporations the
unrestricted "right" and "freedom" to buy, sell, and move their
operations whenever and wherever they want around the world,
unfettered by government intervention or regulation." In short, the
MAI seeks to empower transnational corporations through a set of
global investment rules designed to impose tight restrictions on what
national governments can and cannot do in regulating their economies..
In effect, the MAI amounts to a declaration of global corporate rule.
As such, it is designed to enhance the political rights, the political
power, and the political security of the TNCs on a world-wide scale.
......This new global constitution, however, is certainly not designed
to ensure that the rights and freedoms of the world's people are
upheld by democratically elected governments. On the contrary, it is a
charter of rights and freedoms for corporations only-a charter to be
guaranteed by national governments in the interests of profitable
transnational investment and competition. It is meant to protect and
benefit corporations, not citizens. Indeed, through this new global
constitution, the rights of citizens and the powers of governments
themselves will be largely superseded by those of the transnational
corporations. " (Clarke, 1997 website)
3) Joshua Karliner, The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in
the Age of Globalization (Sierra Club Books, 1997)
Transnational corporations exert significant influence over the
domestic and foreign policies of the Northern industrialized
government that host them. Indeed, the interests of the most powerful
governments in the world are often intimately intertwined with the
expanding pursuits of the transnationals that they charter.
At the same time, transnational corporations are moving to circumvent
national governments. The borders and regulatory agencies of most
governments are caving in to the New World Order of globalization,
allowing corporations to assume an ever more stateless quality,
leaving them less and less accountable to any government anywhere.
These corporations, together with their host governments, are
reorganizing world economic structures--and thus the balance of
political power--through a series of intergovernmental trade and
investment accords. These treaties serve as the frameworks within
which globalization is evolving--allowing international corporate
investment and trade to flourish across the Earth.
They include:
* The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT)
* The World Trade Organization, which was created to enforce the
GATT's rules.
* The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
* The European Union (EU).
* The proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment.( MAI )
* Financial Services Agreement, signed 12 December 1997
becomes effective 1 March 1999.
"These international trade and investment agreements (like MAI)
allow corporations to circumvent the power and authority of national
governments and local communities, thus endangering workers' rights,
the environment and democratic political processes."
4) "Writing the Constitution of a Single Global Economy: A Concise
Guide to the MAI - Supporters and Opponents' Views". 1997
Michelle Sforza-Roderick, Scott Nova, and Mark Weisbro.
U.S. based Preamble Collaborative's Preamble Center for Public
Policy http://www.RTK.NET:80/preamble/mai/maioverv.html
"The MAI is a new international economic pact currently being
negotiated at the OECD. It is designed to ease the movement of capital
- both money and production facilities - across international borders
by restricting laws in participating countries that are viewed as
impediments to capital flows. The proposed agreement's primary
governmental backers are the United States and the European Union.
The MAI is based on the investment provisions of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The MAI amplifies these provisions
and, unlike NAFTA, which only applies to the U.S., Mexico and
Canada, would apply them worldwide. The 29 mostly high-income
countries that comprise the OECD would join first and then
participation in the MAI would be offered to poorer nations.
According to OECD officials, the MAI negotiators are considering
rules that would "go well beyond the...provisions of other
international agreements" and would "provide path-breaking
disciplines on areas of major interest to foreign investors."
(emphasis added)
The MAI and the Global Economy
Over the last few decades there has been a rapid increase in the
movement of capital, as well as goods and services, across
international borders. ....These ....trends together make up what
is commonly referred to as "globalization," and there is heated
debate among policy makers as well as non-governmental organizations
as to the effects of this process on living standards, income
distribution, democracy, and the environment.
5) UN Commission on Social Development ** Advance Unedited Text **
Prepared for 10 - 20 February 1998; Item 3(a) of the agenda
United Nations, New York
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/1915
Follow-up to the World Summit on Social Development Statement of
Information Habitat: Where Information Lives, A Non-Governmental
Organization in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations
Economic and Social Council. Information Technology, Public
Participation & Global Agreements Necessity for Consultations on
Virtual Enabling Frameworks and Processes to Complement and
Strengthen Conventional Mechanisms for Public Participation
Information and communication technologies are the primary enabling
mechanisms for economic globalization, a process that is very rapidly
being translated into binding and legally enforceable international
agreements - agreements that are being negotiated and entered into
force with virtually no opportunity for public participation. As a
result, the "constitution of a single global economy" - a phrase used
by the Director of the World Trade Organization to describe the
pending Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)/1 - is being
finalized in a context in which there is no framework that allows
economic interests to be balanced with consideration of social - and
environmental - concerns. As it stands, the Multilateral Agreement
would subject local and national governmental to legal obligations to
protect corporate property interests against, inter alia, hypothetical
loss of profits resulting from governmental policy as well as from
economic loss caused by strife or social unrest, and would over-ride
incompatible local and national laws and regulations.
There is widespread and growing concern in the non-governmental
community, especially in developing countries, that the adoption of
the Multilateral Agreement, in its present form, in May 1998, would
lock into place a body of enforceable law that would, inter alia,
undermine the implementation of the agreements of the recent series
of global conferences - including the Copenhagen Declaration and the
Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development.
6) From Elisabet Sahtouris , Futurist, Systems theorist, Evolution
Biologist etc. article: "Brazil and Globalization published in Sao
Paulo newspaper: http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/1417
"What they can observe is a global economy designed to further
benefit those who are already wealthy while less developed and poorer
countries such as Brazil support the process at the expense of
domestic self-sufficiency and sovereignty. One year ago, the front
page of the Wall Street Journal cheered that Brazil would finally be
properly mined (now that it belonged to the World Trade Organization),
though there were still "all those darn trees in the way." While being
in the mainstream of globalization may sound as though Brazil is
finally coming into its own, it will actually be increasingly owned
and stripped of resources by foreign business, and increasingly
dependent on a global economy that is highly unstable and could drag
Brazil to ruin..
If Brazil supports the MAI in the upcoming vote, foreign businesses
will have better than equal rights with domestic business, including
the power to *fine* Brazil for any infringement on their production
process, even if it violates Brazilian environmental and labor
standards! This is a highly dangerous situation for the Brazilian
people.
Even some of the wealthiest multi-billionaire capitalists in the world
now recognize the extreme danger of these economic inequities. As
Sir James Goldsmith wrote in the "London Times" of Feb. 1994,
"What an astonishing thing it is to watch a civilization destroy itself
because it is unable to reexamine the validity, under totally new
circumstances, of an economic ideology." And George Soros, in 1997,
added "The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the
communist but the capitalist threat."
When the biggest players in the capitalist money markets issue such
warnings, we had better pay attention. To call the World Trade
Organization-ruled commerce "free trade" is worse than a lie, for such
labels cover up what these men warn of: a process so inequitable that
it now threatens not only Brazil, but the future of all humanity. "
---------------
c) Quotes from individuals and institutes whose perspectives are changing:
"What an astonishing thing it is to watch a civilization destroy
itself because it is unable to reexamine the validity, under totally
new circumstances, of an economic ideology."
- Sir James Goldsmith (financier) in the *London Times* of Feb. 1994
"The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the
communist but the capitalist threat."
- George Soros , The Atlantic Monthly, February 1997 :
"Has Globalization Gone Too Far? " asked in a book published
March 1997 by a leading advocate of increasing global economic integration)
- Institute for International Economics-
In this book, Harvard economist Dani Rodrik supports globalization
as a whole but recognizes that the process causes significant losses
among certain sectors of the population. He criticizes the economics
profession for ignoring the risks and losses associated with
globalization, and urges that governments expand social insurance
programs and take other measures to protect those who are most at
risk.
"There is a phenomenal, unrelenting pressure for a single global
market. Do we want it and where will we draw the line between
efficiency and sovereignty?" said Sylvia Ostry, a respected and staunch
advocate of free trade. "I don't know the answer to that."...
"But I do know that diversity among nation states to me is a
fundamental human value.
"If biodiversity is fundamental then certainly diversity of cultures is
fundamental," said Canada's former ambassador to the Uruguay round
of trade negotiations which concluded in 1994.
-Sylvia Ostrey , (Canadian economist) reported in
The Ottawa Citizen, 28 June 1997
" Ms. Ostry's doubts are an indication that uneasiness about the trend
toward cookie-cutter countries is spreading beyond nationalist, left-
leaning groups.......... she said Canadians and citizens of other
countries need to have more say about agreements that bind national
governments to a set of global rules.
-April Lindgren, The Ottawa Citizen, 28 June 1997-
---------------
d) Other quotes from the concerned: as compiled by the Preamble
Collaborative (US based Policy Centre)
[The MAI in the Words of Framers, Proponents and Opponents:
A compilation of notable quotes on the MAI.]
http://www.RTK.NET:80/preamble/mai/maihome.html
"Most simply, the goal of the investment pact that emerges from
review of these documents is to constrain the power of governments in
host countries and in source countries to regulate investors'
activities. Thus, the MAI would reduce the capacity of national and
sub-national governments to limit the degree and nature of foreign
investment. . . or to impose standards of behavior on investors."
- Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch-
"We're concerned about its deregulation aspects on the environment. .
and there's no balance in it. Corporate rights are not balanced with
corporate responsibility."
- Charles Arden-Clarke, Worldwide Fund for Nature-
"If we reflected upon the economic, social and ethical ramifications
of the MAI, they reveal what is perhaps its most salient feature. It
challenges the right of a nation to determine its own economic, social
and ethical development."
- Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, Director, Just World Trust-
"The MAI is one of the greatest threats ever to the economic
development and national sovereignty of countries of the South."
- Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, Director, Just World Trust-
"Foreign investment in non-democratic countries can help prop up
dictators. For this reason, some nations, states and cities use their
laws as carrots or sticks to discourage businesses from investing in
dictatorial regimes. But the MAI says that foreign companies can't be
punished for investment they make in other countries. This means that
we have to close our eyes to how a foreign investor acts outside of
our borders, so when it comes to foreign corporations, our laws can't
reflect our values."
- Friends of the Earth-
.......................... end .............
