1. The tide of liberalisation and deregulation is still flowing despite the evidence provided by the Asian financial crisis that global markets need more not less control. Negotiations on a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) are far advanced at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This far-reaching treaty aims to create a near global playing field for multinational companies and threatens to undermine many national laws and programmes that protect working people and their communities. Big business is lobbying hard to get the new treaty through by dismissing legitimate concerns about the overall implications of the agreement and by resisting efforts by the trade unions and other groups to ensure that basic labour and environmental standards are included in the agreement with equal force to the provisions it contains on the protection of property and commercial interests. It is time for a full and open debate on the MAI.

2. Trade unions have long advanced the case for a strong international framework to control the abuse of power by the multinationals and to maximise the positive impact of increased international trade and investment. The MAI seeks to establish a framework for expanding liberalisation well beyond the OECD member countries. This is not only because it will be open to accession by non-member states but also because the treaty is expected to profoundly influence the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if and when it starts negotiations on competition and investment.

3. Governments in both OECD and non-OECD countries should be aware that both the content of the current draft and the method by which it is being prepared appears to many as an abdication to big business of the responsibilities of government for the protection of their citizens and the democratic process.

4. The ICFTU reaffirms its support to the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD in its efforts to secure binding clauses that clearly recognise ILO core labour standards within the agreement and stop governments undercutting ILO core labour standards and reducing domestic labour laws to attract investment. Other TUAC objectives include the annexation to the agreement of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises; making labour standards questions part of the regular follow-up and disputes procedures; and to make the establishment of national contact points to enforce the guidelines a binding obligation on all parties to the agreement.

5. These proposals, together with similar references to international environmental standards, constitute an absolute minimum for any new international treaty on foreign direct investment. Without them, the MAI is likely to face considerable opposition in national legislatures when it reaches them for ratification after the target date for the completion of negotiations in April 1998. Even with these provisions, the MAI will pose a threat to many national policies aimed at ensuring that key issues of public policy are not left in the hands of global companies that owe no allegiance to the interests of working men and women and the communities in which they live, and is being opposed by trade unions and others in some OECD countries.

6. The ICFTU and its regional organisations, like TUAC, are deeply concerned about the impact of the MAI on developing countries and urge trade unions in countries likely to accede to the MAI to thoroughly scrutinise the impact of the MAI on national investment policies, such as "performance requirements" steering economic development strategies, and health and education policies. The implications of the provision whereby foreign investors would have the right to take national and local governments to a dispute settlement panel and the possibility of financial penalties without reciprocal rights for governments are very disturbing.