MAI Statement - December, 1998

The Coordinating Committee of the ASGP has signed on to the following statement on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

Dean Myerson, ASGP Secretary 12-1-98 

This sign-on letter from Third World Network from Malaysia, was presented at the OECD Meeting in Paris, October 20 1998. More than 60 groups have  already signed it. We are gathering sign-ons from organizations world wide  to this letter, and encourage you to sign it and also circulate it to other organizations. The WTO working group on the Relationship between Trade and  Investment is meeting in Geneva, November 23-24, and here it will be  decided whether it should be upgraded to a formal negotiating group or  continue to be a working group. It is important for NGOs to stress the fact  that it is the substance of the MAI we oppose, not the venue, and that we  will oppose MAI-like rules wherever they appear. However, this letter also  describes why the WTO is not a suitable arena for MAI from developing  countries perspective.  Please send your sign-ons to mstrand@citizen.org or  to Third World Network at twn@igc.apc.org by November 20st. 

CALL TO REJECT ANY PROPOSAL FOR MOVING THE MAI OR AN INVESTMENT AGREEMENT TO THE WTO.

1. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment in the OECD has run into problems because of strong public protests in many OECD countries as  well as objections from developing-country groups and governments.  Objections from the public include that the MAI would grant new  unprecedented rights for corporations (whilst removing the authority of  states to place obligations or regulations on them), threaten national  sovereignty and the viability of domestic firms and farms, remove   conditions for development in the South and magnify environmental and  social problems. Since there is no sign that the OECD governments are   willing to consider a basic change in the premises and framework of the  MAI, we call for the termination of the negotiations and the treaty in the  OECD.

2. We are very concerned by the moves of some OECD governments, includingthe European Union, to move the MAI process to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The North countries have recently been pushing very hard in the WTO (including its Working Group on Trade and Investment) to get developing countries to agree to upgrade the present "discussions" into negotiations for an MAI-type agreement. They hope to get the Working Group to decide on this perhaps as early as at its next meeting in November 1998.

3. Some of the North countries claim this will make it fairer for developing countries and, moreover, environmental and labour concerns will be taken care of in the WTO. We reject these claims. Instead, shifting the investment issue to the WTO will place great pressure on developing countries to negotiate and eventually join an agreement that would have disastrous effects on their development prospects. Moreover, promises to include environmental and social concerns are likely to be only an eyewash to co-opt the public to accept the basic tenets of the MAI. The strong enforcement capability of the WTO through its dispute settlement system will also mean that all countries, especially developing countries, will be forced to comply. Domestic laws and policies in a wide range of issues will have to be changed, even if these were to cause job losses, closure of local enterprises and farms, financial instability, balance of payments deficits and environmental deterioration.

4. We therefore call on all governments, OECD and non-OECD alike, toreject any proposal to negotiate an investment agreement in the WTO. The trade and investment working group in the WTO should be confined to ONLY STUDY the trade and investment relation and should not be "upgraded" into a NEGOTIATING forum for an investment AGREEMENT. The proposals by the EU and other major countries to start a "Millennium Round" or a "comprehensive future agenda" for the WTO should not be used as a devise to sneak in an investment negotiation process in the WTO.

5. On principle, we are against the kind of assumptions and frameworkthat the MAI represents. As public knowledge on the MAI increases, many more people are rejecting this approach. We call on governments, international agencies and NGOs not to accept the MAI or a similar investment approach as inevitable or a "given" but instead to choose a basically different approach in dealing with the investment issue.

6. Towards this alternative approach, we call for global and national guidelines, rules and regulations to place obligations on investors and corporations so that their activities and products serve the needs of people within a framework of internationally fair, socially just and environmentally sound development.

Third World Network
ECOROPA
Observatoire de la Mondialisation
Coordination Centre L'AMI (French Coordination Centre against the MAI)
Council of Canadians
Health Action International
National Campaign against the MAI in Canada
Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen (USA)
Friends of the Earth (USA)
International Coalition of Development Action
People's Decade of Human Rights Education
Habitat International Coalition
Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance (Ireland)
Women's Environment and Development Organisation
Red Thread (Guyana)
Friends of the Earth International
National Wildlife Federation (USA)
Eco News Africa (Kenya)
Alternative Information and Development Centre (South Africa)
Global Publications Foundation (Sweden)
Peoples' Forum 2001 (Japan)
Focus on Global South (Thailand)
WEED-World Economy, Ecology and Development Association (Germany)
Germanwatch, North-South Initiative (Germany)
Polaris Institute (Canada)
Consumers Association of Penang (Malaysia)
UBINIG (Bangladesh)
Council for Responsible Genetics (USA)
Washington Biotechnology Action Council (USA)
GATT WTO Campaign (Norway)
Network Women in Development Europe (WIDE)
Oscar Zamora, University of the Philippines Los Banos (the Philippines)
All India Association of Industries
A-SEED Europe
Biowatch South Africa
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN)
Institute for Sustainable Development (Ethiopia)
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Southern African Traditional Leaders' Council for the Management of Natural 
Resources
C.I.I.R. (UK)
Gaia Foundation (UK)
Forum of Parliamentarians on Intellectual Property and WTO Issues (India)
National Working Group on Patent Laws (India)
Centre for Study of Global Patent System and Development (India)
Amazon Watch (USA)
Towards a Different Europe
Corporate Europe Observatory
Friends of the Earth (Netherlands)
The Corner House (UK)
Asia-Japan Women's Resource Center
Instituto Brasileiro de Analises Sociais E Economicas (IBASE - The Brazilian
Institute for Social and Economic Analysis)
Indigenous Peoples' International Center for Policy Research and Education
(TEBTEBBA, Philippines)
Asian Indigenous Women's Network
Lithuanian Green Movement/Friends of the Earth (Lithuania)
The Edmonds Institute (USA)
Friends of the Earth (Sweden)
Center for Environmental Public Advocacy (Slovak Republic)
Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA)
Pacific Asia Resource Center (Japan)
Central and Eastern European Bankwatch Network
National Society of Conservationists/Friends of the Earth (Hungary)
Alternative Information & Development Centre (South Africa)
A SEED Japan
Center for International Environmental Law (USA)
ALTERNATIVREFERAT (Austrian Students Union, University for Agricultural 
Science)
Yayori Matsui (Japan)
CUSO Asia/Pacific
JAPEC Monitor NGO Network (Japan)
Canadian Environmental Law Association
Institute of Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone of Latin America
(PACS)
Sarawak Campaign Committee (Japan)
Alliance for Justice, Medical Mission Sisters (USA)
Ruth Caplan, Alliance for Democracy (USA)
Josh Karliner, Transnational Resource and Action Center (USA)
Nancy Allen (Co-Chair), Maine Green Party (USA)
Indonesian Bioforum
Foundation for Public Interest
People-Centered Development Forum (USA)
The Ecologist (UK)
World YWCA
Urgewald (Germany)
Rainforest Information Center (USA)
ISMUN
International Society for Ghandian Studies
Religious of the Sacred Heart International Commission for Justice and Peace
Both Ends
World Development Movement (UK)
Accao Ambiental para O Barlavento (Portugal)
AMIGRANSA (Sociedad de Amigos en Defensa de la Gran Sabana, Venezuela)
Oil Alert Network (Orinoco Oilwatch, Venezuela)
Public Information Network (USA)
SOL Communications (USA)
World Information Transfer
Action Resource Center (USA)
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (USA)
Proutist Universal, Inc, (North America)
KONPHALINDO (Indonesia)
Environmental Monitoring Group (South Africa)
Watch Indonesia
Saskia Ozinga, FERN (UK)
Maurizio Farhan Ferrari, World Rainforest Movement (UK)
Marcus Colchester, Forest Peoples Programme
Association of Organizations for Social and Educational Assistance (FASE, 
Brazil)
Play Fair Europe (Germany)
Third World Forum (international, Senegal)
Rainforest Action Network (USA)
Center for Encounter and Active Nonviolence (Austria)
Platform Vorarlberg for an MAI-free Austria
Afro-Asiatisches Institut Salzburg (Austria)
Sipho Moyo, African Development Bank
Enda Maghreb (Morocco)
ARGE Schopfungsverantwortung (Austria)
Diverse Women for Diversity (India)
BIOTHAI (The Thai Network on Community Rights and Biodiversity)
German Forum for Environment and Development, WG Biodiversity
Neckargemund Talks of Women And Environment
United Metal Workers Union (Turkey)

Margrete Strand Rangnes
MAI Project Coordinator
Public Citizen Global Trade Watch
215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
Washington DC, 20003
mstrand@citizen.org
202-546 4996, ext. 306
202-547 7392 (fax)

The ASGP Platform is available at www.gp.org. 

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