Fowarded From Alliance For Democracy (Ruth Caplan) [Note: some editing of URLs have been done by Gar W. Lipow, so that they point at the right place along with removals of some extra hard carriiage returns.] RE: OECD Ministerial in Paris Remember all those rumors a month or so ago that we had defeated the MAI? Well, like we warned back then, it ain't so. The 29 OECD ministers have just concluded their two days of meetings in Paris without a final agreement on the MAI, but the MAI is still alive and kicking. As predicted last week by Alan Larson of the State Department, the ministers decided to extend negotiations at the OECD with the goal of concluding an agreement of the same breadth and depth as the previous drafts. The ministers are talking about continuing negotiations until their October meeting. Further, it looks like they support parallel negotiations moving forward at WTO. So roll up your sleeves. We have lots of local organizing to do. Public Citizen reports that the OECD actually released a "new" version of the MAI text which purports to deal with concerns about the environment, sovereignty and corporate power; however it fails to incorporate any of the concerns 600 citizen groups from around the world, including the Alliance for Democracy, expressed in their joint statement released last February. In fact, Lori Wallach reports from Paris that many parts of the "new" text are actually worse than the "old" text, incorporating old, rejected language based on GATT/WTO exceptions and non-binding NAFTA recommendations. The one significant change is that the new language on expropriations actually goes even further than the previous text. The new text is available at http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/tradehome.html [Interpolation -- this is GTW main page. Actual text is at http://www.oecd.org/daf/cmis/mai/negtext.htm which is a gateway to PDF versions of the text] According to Lori, the OECD conceded that there are disagreements over text and other issues (especially country-specific reservations) that must be resolved. The ministers stated a need to further address environmental and labor issues, including more consultations. At this time it is not clear as to whether this implies that the areas of the text where there are no disagreement are "locked in" or not. Not surprising, there appears to have been no mention of investor to state dispute resolution as an area of concern. Public Citizen concludes a press release by saying "Global investment rules are needed -- but not these rules written by the largest multinational corporations. We need global investment rules that help root capital in communities with some democratic accountability and the right for our governments to ensure that investment benefits the public interest, not just the special interests." To this I say Amen. To get us revved up on getting anti-MAI local council resolutions passed, I am posting separately an action packet which includies the Toronto and San Francisco resolutions and some guidelines for working with local councils. Dave Lewit and I will try to get additional materials to you shortly.
