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8. Based on UNCTAD figures; see Third World Resurgence, no. 79, p. 18. 9. Testimony by Lori Wallach, public citizen, before the US Congress International Trade Commission, 15 May 1997. 10. UNCTAD, "World Investment Report 1997". 11. Dr P. Schuurman and Dr J. P. Huner, "International Investments", discussion paper for the Directorate General for Foreign Economic Relations, The Hague, February 1996. 12. Interview with Jan Huner, OECD, 28 January 1998. 13. William H. Witherell, Director for Financial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs at the OECD, in "The OECD Multilateral Agreement on Investment", Transnational Corporations, vol. 4, no. 2, August 1995, p. 8. 14. Idem. "These groups dealt, respectively, with liber- alisation obligations under existing OECD instruments, liberalisation obligations in new areas, investment pro- tection, dispute settlement and the involvement of non- members and institutional matters." 15. Witherell, ibid., p. 12. The bulk of these consulta- tions were with the members of the OECD's advisory group on investment, which includes the Central and Eastern European countries, and in "policy dialogue workshops" with South-East Asian and Latin American countries. 16. Under the 1975 Lome Convention, the 70 ACP countries were allowed duty-free exports into the EU as a form of aid. The Lome Convention is being renegoti- ated. 17. This was reported to have happened at, for instance, the meeting between EU and ACP countries in Kampala, Uganda, in October 1997. Roberto Bissio in Third World Network Features, 1680/97, p. 3. 18. The Dutch OECD negotiators wrote in their first report to the Dutch Parliament: "...the function of the treaty that will be agreed upon in the OECD framework is precisely to give the other WTO countries an idea of within the WTO.*' Although there was general consensus on the desirability of a two-track strategy, the European Union was probably the strongest proponent of taking the fast-track approach with the WTO treaty.” As European Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan put it: "I believe that developing countries have never been as receptive as they are today to the message that foreign direct investment is not a threat but a positive tool for economic growth... At a time when over half of new invest- ment flows go to the developing world, this is a global issue that OECD countries can- not resolve alone... We must get the issue into WTO..."* The original idea was to launch negotia- tions on an MIA at the December 1996 WTO ministerial conference in Singapore. The proposal for an MIA outlined in a 1995 European Commission paper, "A Level Playing Field for Direct Investment Worldwide", closely resembled the MAI.“ This MIA would grant foreign investors the rights of entry, establishment and national treatment in all sectors in all WTO member countries, would guarantee unrestricted capital and profit flows, and would require restructuring of tax and company laws. What makes an investment treaty within the WTO attractive to Northern govern- ments is that it would allow access to the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism— and especially to its cross-retaliation provi- sions which are a very powerful juridical instrument involving trade sanctions against non-compliant countries. Influential corporate lobby groups, in par- ticular the European Round Table of Industrialists, have pressured for such a "GATT for investment" since the early 1990s. wel Endnotes 1. European Commission Press Release, "Commission Launches Discussion Paper on Worldwide Investment Rules", IP/95/52, 19 January 1995. 2. ICC report, "Multilateral Rules for Investment", 30 April 1996. 3. Financial Times, London, 2 February 1998. 4. OECD website, http://www.oecd.org/ 5. Ibid. 6. Interview with Jan Huner, deputy of Mr Engering, head of the MAT negotiations, 28 January 1998. Huner did not mention Slovakia, which has previously often been mentioned as a candidate. 7. For an extensive overview of "glocalisation" and other new corporate market strategies, see the article, "Who Competes? Changing Landscapes of Corporate Control", by Nicholas Hildyard, Colin Hines and Tim Lang in The Ecologist, vol. 26, no. 4, July-August 1996. APRIL - MAY 1998 NEXUS - 87 MAIGaALomania! The Multilateral Agreement on Investment To be continued next issue...