Feb 20, 1998

FINANCE: NGOS SAY FIGHT AGAINST INVESTMENT CHARTER NOT OVER

 

Paris, Feb 18 (IPS/Angeline Oyog) -- Groups opposed to a global accord now being drafted to protect the rights of foreign investors around the world, doubt the sincerity of negotiators who claim to recognise their fears about the pact's likely effects.  

The groups said they will remain vigilant despite comments by negotiators made in apparent response to the concerns of labour unions, environmental organisations, artists and NGOs working for sustainable development in developing countries.  

After two days of meetings at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris this week, Chairman of the multilateral agreement on investments (MAI) Negotiating Group, Frans Engering, said there was a "growing convergence of views on the need for the MAI to address social concerns and particularly environmental protection and labour issues." 

Agnes Bertrand, a representative of the Paris based Observatory on Globalisation, flatly rejected the OECD's claim to recognise the need to address social, environmental and labour issues as "extremely hypocritical."

"In fact, the whole architecture of the treaty and its many clauses actually make it impossible to protect social and labour standards, and impossible not to lower environmental standards.  

Engering also added that most delegations, "believed that the MAI should contain a strong commitment by overnments not to lower environmental or labour standards in order to attract or retain investments."

"It is good to have said this," said David Eloy, in charge of the MAI dossier at the Centre for Research and Information on Development (CRID), "but we are not sure these will be made. Will these be imposed or merely intentions that will not be binding? The negotiators seem to have made some modifications this week, but these are not significant. We continue to be opposed to the MAI." 

Senior officials from the 29 OECD member countries and the European Commission met Monday and Tuesday to discuss outstanding issues concerning the agreement that was meant to set down the rules of the game for international investments.  

Negotiations began in 1995 for a treaty that would aim at eliminating barriers and distortions to investment flows, and promote a more efficient allocation of economic resources, thereby achieving higher economic growth, creating more jobs and increasing living standards.  

The MAI is supposed to be ready for signing during the next OECD Ministers' meeting in April, but Engering said some complicated technical and "politically sensitive" issues are still on the table and need further work. It is not clear therefore whether the MAI will be ready by April or if negotiations will continue.  

However, the secret manner in which the negotiations have been conducted and the clauses contained in the draft agreement have raised the ire of consumer groups, labour and trade unions, ecological movements and other organisations in many countries.  

These groups reject what they see to be an attempt by multinational corporations to tear down all and any obstacles to international investments, including national legislations and policies on areas like environmental protection or labour standards, and to make a mockery of the sovereignty of nations.  

"We, at CRID, are not completely opposed to a treaty on investments," said Eloy. "But what has disturbed us is the total secrecy under which the negotiations have been held. We are also disturbed by the fact that the commercial people have been the negotiators. Commercial people are not the ones to dictate to states what they ought to do."

That developing countries have been excluded from the negotiations, he added, was already unacceptable. Imposing the MAI on developing countries would be doubly unacceptable. "The rule of the strongest will therefore be applied and that is just not acceptable," said Eloy.

Five observer delegations -- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong and the Slovak Republic -- participated in this week's talks. According to Engering, the MAI will contain a 'cultural exception' demanded by film makers and audiovisual artists in many countries, particularly France.  

State support for the French film industry is seen in France as the only way to preserve it against the market power of the US movie-makers. These trade advantages were successfully defended in the negotiations to close the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) pact, and Engering was quick to report that what had been agreed under GATT would be preserved under the MAI.  

Despite these assurances, French artists remain mobilised against the MAI. "What we want is a general cultural exception and that the intellectual property rights of authors and artists be excluded as investments," said Caroline Fayat, jurist at the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD).

"We are not reassured at all. In fact, we will be all the more vigilant," said Jean-Pierre Page of the international section of France's General Confederation of Workers (CGT). "The negotiators at the OECD could not have ignored the strong mobilisation against the MAI of several sectors and the criticisms even of certain governments of OECD member countries." 

"According to the philosophy of this treaty, any obstacle to investments is an obstacle to free enterprise," Page said. "All assistance or benefits or worker's right to organise and to strike can be considered obstacles to free enterprise. This treaty must be rejected therefore in its totality."