It's been called "NAFTA on Steroids." It's been called an investor's Bill of Rights. It's been called the most significant economic agreement of the last 50 years.

What is it? It's the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI), a treaty that's been secretly negotiated over the past two years at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. The OECD, made up of the world's 29 wealthiest nations, traditionally has served as a research arm for the finance ministries of member countries.

The MAI is designed to extend and protect the rights of foreign investors and remove restrictions to the free movement of investment capital around the world. If enacted in its current form, it will directly undermine democracy and radically circumscribe the power of governments to direct their economies in ways that promote social, economic and environmental justice.

Specifically, the MAI will:

• give corporations legal power to sue governments directly for monetary compensation, opening the way for corporations to challenge laws or regulations to protect people's health or the environment, and giving investors right to immediate compensation for government measures, including taxes, that have "the effect of" expropriating or nationalizing an investment;

• establish a one-way dispute resolution mechanism enforceable by an international body of trade experts, with no rights of citizen access or input;

• obligate governments to treat foreign investors at least as favorably as their domestic companies (they can treat them better with no penalty under the MAI), thus preventing governments from preferentially promoting domestic investment;

• prohibit certain "performance requirements" or conditions for investment (e.g. requirements that manufacturers transfer environmentally beneficial technology, promote wage equity, or reinvest in the community) even if the same requirements are applied to domestic investments; and

• bind all member countries to the agreement's provisions for 20 years.

The overall impact of the MAI will be to limit what governments can do to regulate corporate behavior and promote accountability, directly impacting local, state and federal laws seeking to make corporations more responsible. It would also put at risk people's right to direct investments to priority sectors, develop policies to assist new industries, guard against capital flight, make decisions about what kind of industries or businesses come into their areas, determine types of ownership allowed (such as joint-ventures), protect themselves from ruthless corporate practices, or institute new and progressive regulations, such as equal pay for equal work.

Although the MAI would initially be a treaty among the OECD countries, developing countries would be under strong pressure to sign on. There are no provisions, however, for incorporating the concern of Southern countries, which typically have higher levels of investment-related regulations such as technology transfer requirements and capital controls designed to lessen the impact of speculation on national economies. Under the explicit threat that investment will not flow to those who don't sign the MAI, developing countries will be faced with a "take it or leave it" decision. Already, however, Southern NGOs are getting the word out about the MAI, and calling on their governments to resist and refuse to sign the MAI if it is passed.

The Network's Response

In 1998, the 50 Years Is Enough Network will work with colleagues all around the world to make the MAI "dead on arrival". We are joining this battle in part because the treaty would set in stone many of the negative policies established under structural adjustment programs. What's more, the World Bank's International Court for Settlement of Investment Disputes will be the main forum through which corporations would sue governments, and the IMF, which has observor status at the negotiations, will have veto power over some of MAI provisions. Joining the MAI fray also reflects the broadening of 50 Years' strategies for promoting global economic justice, and enables us to bring home our focus on the institutions and structures in the global economy that threaten the economic, social and democratic rights of people worldwide. This understanding is critical to mobilizing people to action, which is necessary if we are to bring about change.

50 Years has been working closely with a number of organizations on the forefront of the fight against the MAI, including Friends of the Earth (FoE , a founding member of 50 Years Is Enough), Public Citizen, and the Preamble Center for Public Policy. For example, with the help of these groups, the Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC), and Nicaragua Network, in August we organized an MAI conference call with about 20 Network members from around the country. MAI experts from FoE, Preamble and CTC provided a briefing on the issues, answered questions, and identified legislators that could be targeted by 50 Years groups. Members then followed up by meeting directly with their congresspeople while they were home during the summer recess.

Over the next year, our work on the MAI will be guided by an MAI Task Force, just now being formed among 50 Years members. Watch our email conference for information about the first meeting, which we will hold in early January. Some of the actions we plan to undertake include:

• developing (together with Friends of the Earth, the Alliance for Democracy, Witness for Peace, the Preamble Center, the Democratic Socialists of America, Public Citizen, and other groups) a brochure which lays out the implications of the proposed treaty on women, the environment, workers, local communities, democracy and global economic and social justice.

  The brochure, which will be available in February, will include talking points and a section on what people can do to fight the MAI.

• launching local campaigns to declare towns, counties and states as "MAI Free Zones!"

• producing a fact sheet on the MAI, linking it to SAPs and the private-sector work of the World Bank and the IMF, and suggesting actions people can take;

• integrating information about the MAI in the activist popular educational materials we are developing around the local impact of the global economy and what people can do about it. This activity is particularly important. Under the MAI, many of the local-level strategies devised over the years to promote economic justice would be subject to legal challenge by corporations. This could have a devastating impact on the individual communities that have worked for years to build alternatives, only to have them wiped out by the MAI. The impact on the progressive movement overall could be equally devastating;

• working with members on local media strategies — radio, cable access, the print media — to get the word out about the MAI, including writing sample letters-to-the-editor and op-eds for members to adapt and use in their local media;

• providing ideas for and updates about MAI organizing in Economic Justice News.

To become a member of the 50 Years Is Enough Task Force on the MAI — which means you want to help us plan and implement the 50 Years attack — just call, write or email Lisa McGowan in the Washington office.

For more information on the MAI, contact:

Mark Vallianatos
Friends of the Earth/U.S.
1025 Vermont Avenue, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 783-7400 x 231
fax: (202) 783-0444
email: mvalli@aol.com

Antonia Juhasz
Preamble Center for Public Policy
1737 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 265-3263
(202) 265-3647
e-mail: preamble@rtk.net

Chantell Taylor
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
215 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 456-4996
e-mail: ctaylor@citizen.org