[Fwd: Forward: MAI ON SIX-MONTH HOLD]

Mon, 11 May 1998 11:23:49 -0400
christopher chase-dunn (chriscd@jhu.edu)

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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09 May 1998 11:09:29 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 11:04:42 -0400
From: "nabiha z. z. megateli" <nmegateli@igc.org>
Subject: Forward: MAI ON SIX-MONTH HOLD
Sender: owner-slac@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu
To: slac@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu
Reply-to: slac@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu

Hi all! Good news on MAI stalling FYI. Cheers, NAbiha

>From: Chad Carpenter <chadc@iisd.org>
>To: "Enb-Team (E-mail)" <enb-team@MBnet.MB.CA>
>Subject: MAI ON SIX-MONTH HOLD
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
>
>MAI ON SIX-MONTH HOLD
>
>Ministers from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
>(OECD) last week agreed to a six-month hold on negotiations for a
>Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). Ministers are to use this time
>as a "period of assessment and further consultation between the negotiating
>parties and with interested parties of their societies," according to a
>communique from last week's OECD ministerial meeting in Paris. Talks for
>the MAI began in 1995 and were to conclude with an agreement last year,
>until the deadline was extended until April 28, 1998. It became evident
>this winter that no agreement could be reached, which resulted in last
>week's decision for a pause in negotiations.
>
>France remains the most outspoken against the MAI. According to French
>Minister for European Affairs Pierre Moscovici, a MAI will only be
>acceptable if it includes binding core labor standards for investors;
>provisions for separate liberalization standards for regional economic
>integration organizations (REIOs), e.g. the EU; and the renunciation by the
>U.S. of any possibility of sanctioning foreign firms who invest in Cuba,
>Iran or elsewhere.
>
>With regard to the latter, Mr. Moscovici said, "The United States can't
>negotiate a multilateral agreement for trade and liberalization while at
>the same time taking unilateral measures that are purely extraterritorial
>in nature." The U.S. and EU remain far apart as well over the issue of
>separate standards for REIOs.
>
>France and Canada together called for the MAI to protect cultural
>industries such as the arts from being overrun by foreign investors. This
>so-called "cultural exemption" position has gained popular support in
>France as a reason for opposition against the MAI.
>
>Canadian Trade Minister Sergio Marchi gave voice to a concern held by many
>in the global trade community over whether the OECD is the appropriate
>forum for negotiating a MAI. Mr. Marchi argued that by negotiating a MAI
>via the WTO the agreement would be open to nearly all likely recipients and
>sources of foreign direct investment, rather than the small group of 29
>OECD member-states. Indeed, developing countries have been ultra wary of
>supporting a MAI agreement they had no part in shaping. Mr. Marchi urged
>that investment requires a "more permanent approach," through the WTO and
>said that the work done thus far by the OECD is "important but preparatory
>nonetheless."
>
>Japan last week also called for investment to be included in possible
>Millennium Round talks at the WTO, although it is not clear if Japan
>intended to call for parallel talks to the OECD or to move the MAI to the
>WTO outright.
>
>The pause in MAI talks is seen in part as a victory for environmentalists,
>trade unions and consumer advocates who lobbied vigorously against the MAI.
>According to John Evans, secretary-general of the Trade Union Advisory
>Committee to the OECD, "[t]he new debate on the MAI has shown politicians
>where the fault line is on globalization...[This] agreement cannot be
>negotiated only with the needs of investors in mind."
>
>OECD trade negotiators are formally due to meet again in October. EU trade
>commissioner Sir Leon Brittan urged for a firm date to be set to resume
>negotiations, lest absence of a date become "an elegant or not-so-elegant
>way of signing the death warrant to the whole thing."
>
>"Investment pact in jeopardy in OECD as members agree to six-month pause,"
>INTERNATIONAL TRADE REPORTER, April 29, 1998; "OECD accepts French demand
>to pause MAI talks, paves way for WTO work," INSIDE U.S. TRADE, May 1,
>1998; "OECD agrees to continue talks on multilateral investment talks,"
>WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 29, 1998; "Japan favors inclusion of investment
>in new WTO round;" "OECD fails to agree on opening up investment markets,"
>AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, April 27, 1998, "OECD's future," FINANCIAL TIMES,
>April 28, 1998.
>*******************************************************
>Chad Carpenter
>Program Officer
>International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
>New York, NY
>Tel: + 1 (212) 643-9599
>E-mail: chadc@iisd.org
>http://www.iisd.ca/linkages
>
>
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Nabiha Z. Z. Megateli
Department of Anthropology
Johns Hopkins University
404 Macaulay Hall
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

tel : 410 243 2332
fax : 410 516 6279
e-mail : nmegateli@igc.apc.org

Home address:
3040 Abell Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21218

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