March 17, 1998 -- United Methodist Women (UMW) leaders expressed concern Saturday afternoon about the impact on women of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI).
The response of many UMW members came after Antonia Juhasz of the Preamble Center spoke to them in a pre-briefing meeting that took place in Washington, DC, prior to the 28th annual interfaith legislative briefing.
The MAI has been called "NAFTA on steroids" and "a bill of rights for corporations." While NAFTA required a liberalization of trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the MAI deals with investments and is intended to involve almost all the countries of the world. It would require the free-flow of investments between signatory countries. The agreement has been negotiated behind closed doors in Paris by 29 of the wealthiest nations in the world that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
"The OECD has been called a club of the world's wealthiest nations," says Ms. Juhasz, whose work includes research, education and action on the MAI. "The MAI is the most important international agreement to come along in the past 40 years," she says. "And no one wants to talk about it."
Anna Rhee, executive secretary for public policy of the Women's Division, says UMW members' main concern is that there has been almost no opportunity for public discussion about the MAI and its impact. "We are concerned about the almost secretive nature of the negotiations and the lack of public debate over this significant international economic agreement that will impact the lives of women around the world. It's a corporate bill of rights designed to protect profits at the expense of workers, and the health and security of communities and families everywhere," says Ms. Rhee.
According to Ms. Juhasz, the MAI originated in the World Trade Organization. But when developing countries expressed concern about it, the MAI was moved to the OECD, where the 29 wealthiest nations were given power to write and complete the agreement.
Ms. Juhasz shared several provisions that concerned UMW participants. Unlike NAFTA, under the MAI corporations would be able to move investments, including factories and other manufacturing operations, around the world as quickly as possible, with as few regulations as possible, to make the highest profits possible," says Ms. Juhasz. The MAI would require the repeal of any local, municipal, state and federal laws that could prevent corporations from receiving full benefits of their investments.
"They want to lock in laws that protect corporations and ensure the laws can't ever be changed," she says.
Non-discrimination clauses in the MAI state that governments can not treat small, domestic-owned companies differently than foreign companies. For example, subsidies to local, women-owned businesses would have to be equally offered to large multinational corporations. In the face of mounting costs, programs that provide funds for local business development would probably be eliminated. And, economic sanctions, like those that helped topple the apartheid regime in South Africa, would be prohibited. Local, state, and federal governments would be prohibited from requiring foreign investors to hire and train local workers or adhere to environmental standards such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.
"Roadblocks will be eliminated," says Ms. Juhasz, stressing that investors will be able to take money in and out of a country whenever they want, making investments and economies unstable.
The MAI could be up for a vote in Congress as early as summer 1998. Ms. Juhasz warns that negotiations at the OECD are faltering and MAI supporters are looking for other vehicles to carry certain provisions. Tuesday's vote on the disaster relief/International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue supplemental funding bill in the US House of Representatives includes an amendment to prevent the IMF from adding some egregious provisions of the MAI to its rules and practices. Members of United Methodist Women in Washington, DC, this week will urge their representatives to support the amendment.
"It's a justice issue," says Ms. Rhee. "The MAI is going to have an impact on women and others here and in other countries with whom we're in mission."
Ms. Rhee cites that the MAI would attack policies meant to address women's poverty and inequality. "We need an investment agreement that is fashioned with full citizen participation -- economic, environmental, and social priorities -- and that holds multinational corporations and investors accountable to citizen-defined priorities," says a new pamphlet on the MAI, co-sponsored by the Women's Division.
A national week of action against the MAI, beginning April 17 and joining actions in other countries around the world, will lead up to the next MAI negotiating meeting of the OECD in Paris.
The Women's Division represents United Methodist Women, a one-million member organization whose purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders, and advocate for social justice. Members raise more than $25 million dollars a year for programs and projects related to women, children, and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.
For more information on the MAI, contact Anna Rhee at (202) 488-5660.
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