---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 13:08:07 -0500
From: Bram Dov Abramson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Universal Access Canada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Nations Set to Bury MAI...
Nations set to bury MAI
Controversial trade deal victim of OECD reservations;
liable to perish if moved to WTO
Monday, April 27, 1998
By Madelaine Drohan
PARIS -- Trade ministers from 29 of the world's leading industrialized
countries appear set to consign the controversial Multilateral Agreement on
Investment to a lingering death.
In a statement from Paris late today or tomorrow, the ministers from the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are expected to
soft-soap their decision, saying they think there are solutions to the
problems that still impede a deal after three years of talks.
But significantly, they are not expected to set a new deadline, having
already missed two.
The MAI deal has become politically sensitive partly because there is a
growing public backlash against globalization in some countries, and partly
because of a well-co-ordinated campaign by lobby groups, which say the deal
is designed to protect corporations and not people.
"There is substantial agreement around the table for a pause," said one
diplomat involved in the negotiations, who asked not to be named. How long
a pause, he did not say.
There is also a move afoot, led in part by Canadian Trade Minister
Sergio Marchi, to move the talks from the cozy OECD, whose 29 members are
mostly rich, industrialized countries, to the more diverse World Trade
Organization in Geneva, whose 132 members come from both the developed and
developing worlds.
Diplomats involved in the negotiations say a move to the WTO would
seriously delay, if not kill altogether, the attempt to reach international
rules on investment that would be similar to those already in existence for
trade in goods.
"If it goes to the WTO it becomes part of the next round," said one
diplomat, who spoke on the condition that he not be named.
There is no starting date yet for the next round of WTO talks. The last
round took seven years to complete. Even if the 132 WTO members were able
to reach an agreement where the OECD members could not -- which, diplomats
say, is unlikely -- any multilateral agreement on investment is years away.
For that very reason, the countries that do want a deal are fighting to
keep the negotiations at the OECD. But diplomats admit that success is
looking no more likely in Paris.
OECD members, including Canada, have registered hundreds of objections
to the MAI proposals in an attempt to to protect sensitive sectors of their
economies from being exposed to unrestricted flows of global capital.
Canada and France, for instance, have been the most vocal about
protecting their cultural industries from being overrun by multinationals.
But there are hundreds of other reservations in areas as diverse as
environment, financial services, telecommunications and transport.
Last week, Mr. Marchi listed culture, the environment, labour standards,
health, education, social services, aboriginal programs and programs for
minority groups as sensitive areas for Canada, and vowed that he would not
be pushed into a deal. "There is no deadline or time line," he said. "There
is only Canada's bottom line."
Not everyone at the Paris talks applauds the Canadian trade minister's
stand. "We've all got reservations," said a Paris-based diplomat from a
small country which wants the talks to be completed in Paris. "But these
things could be dealt with."
The problem is a lack of political will at the moment, he said. "The MAI
has become so political in some countries like Canada and France that
ministers don't want to stand up for it. They think it's safer to put their
cards in the WTO. This is ostrich behaviour."
Even the United States, whose multinationals pushed for the talks in the
first place, has lost its enthusiasm for the talks at this time.
The Council of Canadians, headed by Maude Barlow, has been one of the
more vocal opponents of the deal. It believes the MAI is not dead yet, and
that countries will continue to try to find some way of reaching global
investment rules down the road.
[ News ] [ Sports ] [ The Arts ] [ Commentary ] [ Report on
Business ]
Back to the top of the page
We welcome your comments.
Copyright © 1998, The Globe and Mail Company
All rights reserved.
----
Bram Dov Abramson ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Laboratoire de recherches sur les politiques de communication
Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128, Succ. Centreville, Montréal (Qué) H3C 3J7 Canada
Virtual Conference on the Right to Communicate:
<http://www.comm.uqam.ca/~COMMposite/videaz>
