by Hannah Meils

Women worldwide stand to lose from an international agreement currently being privately negotiated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a 29-government forum of mostly European and North American high-income countries. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) creates the potential for increased sweatshop conditions, environmental degradation, and further impoverishment for women globally, because it would limit the ability of governments to regulate foreign investment. It is based on provisions similar to those of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In contrast to NAFTA, the MAI provisions would be applied worldwide rather than to only the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The MAI could prohibit laws requiring foreign companies to invest in the local community, to pay employees a living wage, and to obey environmental laws. The MAI could also challenge affirmative action policies and the ability of governments to place economic sanctions on countries with numerous human rights violations.

The OECD refuses to directly address the issues of sweatshops and human rights violations. Even worse, the MAI would give individual investors and corporations the unprecedented ability to sue a government if they felt that government was violating the MAI by, for example, requiring the company to obey wage or environmental laws. If the country is found in violation of the MAI it would be subject to a monetary fine.

Despite the drastic impact that the MAI would have on women, labor rights, and the environment, OECD negotiations have been kept from the public. Advisory committees formed to influence US negotiating positions contain only small numbers of women's, labor, and environmental representatives.

OECD members hope to have the agreement finished by May 1998, after which it will need to be approved by each member country. In the U.S., a two-thirds majority of Congress would have to pass the MAI for it to take effect. However, President Clinton is interested in "fast-track" negotiating authority which would eliminate thorough Congressional debate and the need for a 2/3 majority.

For more information on the MAI contact Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch at 202-546-4996. €