Manifesto on Multilateral Agreement on Investment

OECD. We pledge to fight any future agreement, whatever its origins, based on the same principles. We warn against the fundamentally antidemocratic nature of neo-liberal capitalism which, as the MAI shows, seeks to grant all the rights and prerogatives to private investors and to impose all the duties and burdens upon States and citizens. We demand that industrial and financial Transnational Corporations [TNCs] be subject to the law and to taxation established by the people's representatives.

I. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment

In 1995, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], through its Ministerial Council, took upon itself to negotiate a 'Multilateral Agreement on Investment'. The OECD, made up of the world's 29 richest countries, was never intended to serve as a negotiating forum for a universal international treaty. Nonetheless, for three years, the MAI negotiations have continued in near-total secrecy with neither national parliaments nor citizens being informed concerning them.

Since 1997, when this project was finally revealed, the MAI has provoked a storm of protest in many countries. It
would grant unlimited freedom to TNCs and powerful financial institutions, conferring on them the legal status of Most Favoured Nation (treatment equal or superior to that granted national firms) without subjecting them to any performance requirements with regard to employment, transfers of technology or local procurement. In case of disputes, an investor could challenge a State before a panel of experts, sitting behind closed doors and handing down binding judgements, without appeal. A State, on the other hand, could not file a complaint against an investor.

The MAI would guarantee total liberalisation for all investments including industrial plants and equipment but
also stocks, bonds, financial instruments, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, natural resources, agricultural or urban land, intellectual and artistic property. In a parallel process, the World Trade Organisation [WTO] is pursuing trade liberalisation of goods and services, without taking into account the conditions of production, the rights of workers or damage caused to the environment.

The WTO and MAI negotiations are seen as complementary. Their combined success would allow neo-liberals to write the Charter of a world economy entirely at their service.

II. The Neo-liberal Project

The term 'deregulation' is misleading. Any system, including the so-called 'free' market,' requires rules. The
real question is who establishes these rules and in whose favour. Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund [IMF] and the World Bank, nations of the South have been forced to 'liberalise' their economies through Structural Adjustment. 'Liberalised' financial markets encourage parallel and criminal economies. Everywhere, industrial and financial TNCs, often with the full cooperation of governments, seek to dismantle democratically established laws and substitute their own rules. 'Deregulation' strikes
the exercise of national sovereignty, worker rights and social, cultural and environmental gains won through years of struggle.

The neo-liberals are pursuing a global strategy. Even if the MAI is defeated, even if the OECD is discredited as a negotiating forum, they will attempt to reach their goals in other ways and through all available means:

• The World Trade Organisation is pursuing negotiations similar to those at the OECD so as to liberalise investments. In the case of the WTO. the proposed treaty is called not MAI but MIA-the Multilateral Investment Agreement.
• The New Transatlantic Marketplace [NTM], patterned on the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] has been launched by Sir Leon Brittan and Martin Bangemann at the European Commission. The NTM would create a unreservedly liberalised framework for trade and investment between North America and greater Europe.
• For the first time in its history, the IMF is pushing for a change in its Articles so that it can take jurisdiction over member States' capital accounts. The Fund could then force its members to eliminate all restrictions on incoming or outgoing capital flows.

All these ventures are conducted behind closed doors, far from unwelcome scrutiny by citizens and their representatives, in complete contempt for democracy.

Standing in the background, behind the MAI, the WTO, the NTM and the IMF are the same neo-liberal pressure groups. Through the Business and Industry Advisory Council [BIAC] established long ago at the OECD, TNC lobbies hold direct
influence over the drafting of the MAI. Among them are the International Chamber of Commerce, the Japanese Employers Association (Keidanren) the United States Council for International Business, the European Roundtable of Industrialists (45 CEOs of the most powerful European TNCs).

All these lobbies seek a universal investment framework which will be binding for States but allow the destruction of peoples' rights and the environment. The media all too often support their aims. Democratic forces must therefore remain vigilant; they must mobilise and coordinate their efforts internationally.

We the undersigned reject a world based on the tyranny of the 'free' market. We reject an economic model in which a minority confiscates most of the wealth and consigns millions to poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. We reject a society in which goods, services and capital circulate freely, beyond the reach of social and political control, whereas people cannot move at will, particularly between rich and poor countries. We reject a doctrine whose principle values are competition and the war of all against all. We reject the ambition of TNCs and finance capital to rule the world in defiance of democracy and human rights.

III. Our Fundamental References

Articles 2 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) recognises the right to 'resist oppression'; Article 3 declares that 'the principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation', not in a pact designed by powerful corporations. We demand that citizens and parliaments be kept completely and regularly informed concerning negotiations in which their governments participate: according to Article 15, 'All public officers are accountable to society for their administration'.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose 50th anniversary is celebrated in 1998; the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [1966] all guarantee the rights of peoples to 'freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources'; they stipulate that 'In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence'. The United Nations Charter of the Economic Rights and Duties of States [1974] further stipulates that 'every nation has the inalienable right to regulate foreign investment and to exercise control over
investments'. The MAI and other instruments based on the same principles violate all these rights.

Transnational Corporations have always opposed any social or ecological measures which could restrict their freedom of action or limit their profits. They will not be satisfied until the entire world does their bidding but they will offer
little in return: considering their power and their sales, these companies provide scant employment. They continue to lay off personnel as their profits continue to flourish. (1)

IV. Our Demands

We demand:

• an immediate end to the MAI negotiations
• the rejection of the New Transatlantic Marketplace
• a thorough re-examination of the roles of the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and the future European Central Bank.

We call on citizens, public entities, associations, trade unions and political organisations to unite in resistance against neo-liberal aims and to demand a binding legal framework for TNCs.

Transnational Corporations must, in particular

• be subject to binding national and, in future, international legislation with regard to financial transparency, taxation, social security, workers' rights. culture, agriculture.
• be forced to take responsibility for their impact on society, the environment and public health.
• be accountable not merely to their shareholders but to their employees and to the local authorities of communities where they have invested.
• States should keep control over their economic policies. The economy should exist to serve peoples; not the opposite.

We further demand:

• appropriate national and international legislation to stem capital flight;
• abolition of offshore tax-havens;
• establishment of an international tax on speculative capital movements and surtaxes on the profits of polluting industries;
• a stop to the privatisation and the dismantling of public services in essential sectors such as health, water, telecommunications, education, transport, energy;
• observance of the Precautionary Principle in with regard to the environment and public health (2);
• an immediate end to the granting of patents on genetically manipulated plants, animals or micro-organisms;
• an international and independent supervisory authority which includes trade unions, NGOs and associations to ensure the proper execution of these measures, particularly the auditing of TNC accounts.

The economy should guarantee a fair distribution of revenue and resources rather than remunerating capital to the
detriment of workers and the unemployed. It should satisfy the needs of citizens and be based on their participation in the decision-making process. It should preserve the environment and encourage production which maintains natural balance. It should reduce the increasingly deep disparities between North and South.

Neo-liberalism is based on permanent aggression. It seeks to wear down its adversaries and to discourage the resistance of citizens, trade unions, and associations. It invades all spheres of life and attacks fundamental rights. Our major
priorities must be the establishment of democracy internationally and the re-establishment of weakened national democracies.

A transnational threat calls for a transnational response: it is time for democratic forces throughout the
world to unite, to share their analyses and coordinate their actions. If we do not take up this challenge, we shall betray those who came before us, our own historic responsibility, and future generations.

References

1. TNCs have a turnover 11 times greater, but employ only 1.8 times as many people as in 1980. The top 100 TNCs sacked 4 percent of their employees between 1993-1995.
2. This principle affirms that when in doubt as to the harmfulness of a project or process, and
unless proof to the contrary can be established, one must abstain.