Multilateral Agreement on Investment

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The Multilateral Agreement on Investments ( MAI , also Multilateral Investment Agreement ) is an international agreement between the OECD countries that was planned in the 1990s, but never came into force . It should have encouraged direct foreign investment in the signatory states . To this end, the rights of international investors should have been comprehensively strengthened.

development

The investment protection under the MAI was developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD ) and would have exceeded the investment protection granted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) . The MAI should also be open to non-OECD members.

Negotiations between business and politics began in 1995 with the exclusion of the public, including the developing countries . In 1997 they became known through an indiscretion and were initially discussed publicly in Canada, the USA and a little later in Europe, with cautious reporting by the mass media .

As a result of the resulting civil society resistance, 450 representatives of multinational corporations issued a statement in September 1998 :

“The emergence of activist groups threatens to undermine public order , legitimate institutions and the democratic process. [...] Rules should be drawn up to clarify the legitimacy of these activist, non-governmental organizations that pretend to represent the interests of large sections of civil society. "

- Geneva Business Dialogue

The negotiations were nevertheless initially suspended. In December 1998, the MAI failed due to resistance from France . Despite the official failure, many MAI ideas have since been incorporated into the regulations of the world's major economic communities.

Key points of the MAI

  • Transparency : Publication of laws and regulations that affect investments
  • Most favored nation clause : Investors and investments of a MAI member may not be placed worse off than those of another MAI member
  • Requirements for regulations: certain regulations for investors, such as the employment of local workers, "local content" rules, minimum quotas for the export of goods or obligations to transfer technology, should be prohibited
  • Expropriations : May only be carried out in the public interest and in connection with immediate, reasonable compensation. National environmental and social taxes are also understood as expropriation.
  • Prohibition of state activity: The interest groups of the citizens and the nation state as well as its administrative sub-organizations are not allowed to engage in any economic activity.
  • Transfer of profits: Capital, dividends and profits may be transferred between MAI member countries tax-free.
  • State liability : Nation states are liable for all financial losses suffered by investors as a result of protests and unrest. There is also an obligation to pay compensation for shortfalls in revenues due to national laws or regulations if these laws do not exist in another member country of the MAI.
  • Conflict resolution mechanism : In cases of conflict, an independent decision-making body decides. Decisions do not have to be justified, the nation states have no right to inspect files .
  • Minimum term: To secure the investments made, a state can only withdraw from the agreement after 20 years.

Exceptions

  • Fundamental exceptions: national security and measures to ensure the stability of the financial system
  • Temporary Safeguards: Measures to respond to balance of payments difficulties
  • Country-specific exceptions: Negotiated by the members of the MAI, they allow each individual country to adhere to certain regulations and laws that contradict the agreement

Unclear points of view

  • Exceptions to liberalization: e.g. exception to the most favored nation clause regarding rules that countries have in economic unions and the so-called cultural exception
  • Health and safety regulations: whether it should be explicitly forbidden to lower health and safety regulations in order to attract investment; whether internationally recognized health and safety regulations should be explicitly included in the MAI
  • Environmental protection: How can we ensure that the MAI does not prevent the member countries from implementing national environmental protection measures that reduce the value of foreign investments?
  • Treatment of conflicting national law

criticism

According to its critics, the MAI in the form discussed would have meant a massive restriction of state sovereignty , for Germany also that of the federal states and the municipalities. International corporations would have been granted the right to sue before international dispute settlement bodies ( investor-state dispute settlement ). The arbitration tribunals of the 2015 discussed TTIP , designed according to the same principle, are based on a commission from the Hans Böckler Foundation by judges of the Federal Constitutional Court a. D. Siegfried Broß is unconstitutional.

The basic thesis of the MAI that free competition leads to the greatest possible benefit for society as a whole is often contested by critics of globalization . The critics point out that deregulation in the sense of the MAI concept creates supplier oligopolies and monopolies even where they are counterproductive due to the task at hand. In areas of the economy that can only be operated monopolistically, state monopolies are converted into corporate monopolies without a democratic control body. Without state intervention, market participants would subordinate the area of ​​services of general interest and environmental conservation to their short- and medium-term interests.

Proponents of a market free of state regulation share the criticism of globalization critics insofar as state monopolies were often converted into corporate monopolies instead of establishing a real free market during privatizations. In contrast to the critics of globalization, however, they assume that there are basically no areas of the economy that can only be operated monopolistically (and that therefore, in principle, the entire economy should be privatized).

See also

literature

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