Message-ID: <00b301bdf9e7$2f3361a0$3a45fea9@jay98> Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 05:59:50 -1000 From: Jay Hanson <mailto:j@QMAIL.COM> Subject: MacWorld is disintegrating! To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
"It is one thing to delegate sovereignty within the framework of our own community, that of the European Union, in a process controlled by governments...it is another thing to concede sovereignty to private interests under the pretext of a discussion of a code on international investment," Jospin said to cheers from Socialist and Communist deputies.----------------------------------------------------------------
By Christopher Noble, Reuters
PARIS, Oct 14--France, taking advantage of growing doubts about economic globalisation, said on Wednesday it would not take part in the next round of talks on a treaty to liberalise global investment. The decision deals a serious blow to the treaty, known as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which has been under negotiation since 1995 but has come under increasing fire from wary governments.
France, along with many other nations, has long objected to specifics in the draft, even though it is broadly in favour of free trade and cross border investment. A spokeswoman for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has acted as broker for talks on the treaty, said an October 20 meeting on the MAI would go ahead without France.
The meeting had been meant to relaunch negotiations after a six- month pause. The spokeswoman said the OECD would issue a statement on the matter on Thursday.
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin told parliament the current draft treaty threatened national sovereignty and could not serve as the basis for an agreement. "France will not take part in the negotiations in the OECD framework on October 20," he said.
The prime minister said France wanted talks on international investment to be restarted within a new framework that was more broadly based than the exclusive 29-member OECD.
"In our view, the natural framework for this is the World Trade Organisation," Jospin said, saying the WTO's "universal nature" and inclusion of developing nations made it an ideal forum for investment talks.
He added that France was still committed to free trade and investment. "But I think in light of recent turmoil--the hasty and sometimes unreasonable movements that have gripped markets-- it does not seem wise to us to see, to an excessive degree, private interests encroaching on the state's sphere of influence.
"It is one thing to delegate sovereignty within the framework of our own community, that of the European Union, in a process controlled by governments...it is another thing to concede sovereignty to private interests under the pretext of a discussion of a code on international investment," Jospin said to cheers from Socialist and Communist deputies.
The MAI has come under heavy fire from environmental groups and other countries which maintained it was weak on cultural, environmental and labour protection. Magda Aelvoet, president of the environmentalist Green Group in the European Parliament, said France's decision was a "great victory" for the Greens and for nongovernmental organisations.
"We hope that this is the fatal blow for an agreement which ... would have reduced the sovereignty of states in favour of private investors and would not have respected social, environmental and cultural rights," Aelvoet said in a statement.
Nigel Gardner, spokesman for European Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan who backs the goals of the MAI, said it now looked as if there would not be negotiations in Paris next week.
But he hoped there would be a chance for informal consultations so other OECD members could share their views. "We've got to look carefully at what the French are saying and what the other participants are saying," he said.
France's decision comes after the OECD failed in its attempt to broker an international accord on shipbuilding subsidies.
"Clearly this is a disaster for the OECD," a source close to the agency said. The source said inclusion of developing countries in the talks, a key French demand, could pose nearly insurmountable problems in reaching an accord.
Talks on the MAI, meant to bar discrimination against foreign investment--which now totals some $350 billion a year--ground to a halt in February after three years of low profile negotiation at the Paris-based OECD. The treaty was originally due to be approved in April of this year.
Jay