---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 17:22:31 -0500 (EST) From: Andrea Durbin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [csdgen] [mai] OECD Says: No MAI in April!!! Just OUT!!!!! Apologies for Cross Listings **************************************************************** Chairman of the Negotiating Group on MAI, Frans Engering, will recommend OECD governments not to sign the MAI Treaty at the OECD Ministerial Conference in Paris 27-28 April 1998. According to Engering this means at least a year further delay for negotiations until the next OECD Ministerial in the spring of 1999. Engering made these statements this morning at a conference in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on Development in Africa, organized by the Evert Vermeer Foundation. This is the first time that the Chairman of the Negotiation Group admits that signing in April is not feasible. Anti-MAI campaigners all over the world may prepare for festivities to celebrate a major victory when the crisis in the MAI negotiations becomes official at the OECD Ministerial next month. Engering acknowledged the failure of the April deadline during a heated debate about the development impacts of the MAI. Remarkable was his repeated support for an multilateral investment treaty within the framework of the World Trade Organisation. This indicates that whether or not the MAI will be shelved, the pressure for a MAI-like investment treaty will remain. For more information, contact Olivier Hoedeman and Erik Wesselius at Corporate Europe Observatory <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
