Multilateral Agreement on Investment

by Anup Shah
This page last updated Wednesday, December 20, 2000

This print version has been auto-generated from https://www.globalissues.org/article/48/multilateral-agreement-on-investment

We had a potential nightmare in the form of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment¹ (MAI). An almost unheard of agreement that was being discussed about investment rights and opening up nations for freer trade.

However many, many people feared that this would be accompanied by grave social and environmental consequences, due to the wording of the MAI text. Due to the provisions in the text there would be a real transfer² of decision-making power to unaccountable private corporations, making it more difficult for elected governments to pass and apply laws for their public's interest, with the effect of reducing democracy so that people are locked in to corporate-rights agreements (all under the banner of "Free Trade³!!").

MAI pushed back thanks to public protests -- for now

In April 1998, the good news was that the deadline for the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries to sign the agreement had been pushed back⁴, with other countries to sign it later. October 20, 1998 has also seen a further setback to the MAI with the OECD members unable to agree on a future⁵ for this controversial trade pact and pushed back negotiations once more. This had been a significant achievement as it seems that hundreds of grassroots organizations, worldwide, objected to the MAI in its present form and with the help of the Internet⁶, were able to create a substantial and global wave of protests on the real effects of the MAI.

There were also fears that the MAI could be moved⁷ from the domain of the OECD to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which would have more clout over the issue. In fact, some campaigners are saying that it would be better if the MAI negotiations came under the UNCTAD⁸ (United Nation's Conference on Trade and Development), which would be a fairer moderating organization.

More Information

As well as the links above, the following provide some core information regarding the Multilateral Agreement on Investment:

This Report⁹ on the MAI gives lots of examples of the effects of the MAI coming into effect.
OneWorld's Guide to the MAI¹⁰.
The MAI-Not!¹¹ campaign, based in Canada, is attempting to stop the agreement. They have lots of information on the subject.
Here are some interesting quotes¹² from key people on the subject of the MAI.
This article¹³ from Noam Chomsky provides an excellent analysis into the issues surrounding the debate (or lack of) on the MAI.
CorpWatch¹⁴ have an extensive list of links¹⁵ to other web sites reagrding the MAI.
You can download the official MAI negotiation text and commentary from this link¹⁶.
Protecting War; Militarism and MAI¹⁷ from the Canadian based Peacewire¹⁸ shows how the MAI would have been beneficial to the arms trade and military industry.
From this web site:
- The General Agreement on Trade in Services¹⁹ part of this section, which looks at the next version of the MAI.
- The World Trade Organization²⁰ part of this section