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.
