[BJ]
Sorry Albert. It looks like the MAI is officially stuffed. So there!
Regards
Brian Jenkins
[AL]
Well then, congratulations to One Nation, Greens, Democrats, and of
course "socialist
organizations" on their participation in a campaign that has been
declared "officially victorious".
At least I won't have to feel guilty about not arguing about it further
right now.
(BTW I still have a backlog of many other items to respond to - sorry to
all for
continuing delay - hope to get more time in next few days).
Somehow I think the process of globalization will roll on regardless
(apart from
possible interruption by the looming world economic crisis). See below.
-----Original Message-----
From: McKenna, Viktoria (Sen W. Heffernan) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Friday, 30 October 1998 10:41
Subject: Update on Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)
|Thankyou for your e-mail concerning the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment
|(MAI), and I apologise for any delay in responding.
|
|At an informal consultation among officials at the OECD in October 1998
it
|became clear that the MAI in its current form will not go ahead.
|
|The MAI was being negotiated by members of the Organisation for
Economic
|Cooperation and Development (OECD), including Australia, and eight
non-OECD
|participants, with the aim of providing a transparent, effective and
|comprehensive framework for international investment.
|
|Officials at the meeting supported the need for a transparent and
certain
|global investment framework and accordingly, agreed to continue work on
|developing an international framework of rules for investment. The MAI
text,
|however, will now only be a reference point for any further work.
[AL]
The "Multilateral Agreement on Investment" is dead.
Long live the "Mutual Commitment to an Effective Transparent and
Comprehensive Framework for Non-Discriminatory Sustainable Development"
or whatever warmer and fuzzier title
comes out of the continuing work from the present reference point.
So there ;-)
