Multilateral Agreement on Investment

In the high tech age of today, business are looking for new ways to expand and get

their products out to the market. We already have many laws and organizations that

encourage this and try to help out the corporations. NAFTA, GATT, WTO and EECU

are all set up with corporations in mind. We are all striving for a free market economy so

that everyone has a chance but what risks will that impose on the consumer. That is

where the MAI comes in. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment is trying to reach for

a free market.

The MAI has been being discussed since 1995. It started off as an idea in the

WTO and when some of the smaller countries rejected it, it went to the Economic

Cooperation and Development. This organization is made up of the 29 wealthiest

countries which are home to 95% of the top 500 corporations. This new agreement is very

strong and that is why it is still being held up in the discussion stage. If it does come true

it will allow corporations to build anywhere and make what they want that they think that

they can sell. it will also let the corps. move capitol more freely. The main viewpoint for

this is that it will eliminate discrimination of the corporations nationality.

The downfalls are that it gives the corporations the power to sue

government of the country that it is in if the corporation feels that its right to make profit

is being harmed. his comes as a big problem because then the corporation no longer has

to worry about doing things a certain way as long as they make money. This leaves the

people in the state helpless against their pollution and pricing power.

As of now this agreement is still being held up because France and Canada

dropped out of the discussions due to the large Non-Government Organizations that are

protesting the MAI. The other countries are trying to revive it because they think in the

long run it will be beneficial as we globolize are economies more.