MAI delayed

An international campaign by pressure groups, trade unions and grassroots activists has successfully blocked the signing of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment by its original deadline. The OECD treaty may now be negotiated on a new timetable, probably running on into 1999.

A strong coalition of activists across Western Europe mobilised against the treaty which would have directly attacked countries' rights to regulate the activities of inward investors, including labour and environmental controls on multinational companies. In Britain an anti-MAI resolution was passed at the Scottish Labour Party Conference and local councils have also expressed concern at the MAI's potential impact on their activities.

Yet despite mounting pressure from backbench MPs, Labour continues to peddle the previous government's line that the treaty is desirable. Pressure needs to be maintained: the MAI would be a charter for multinationals against any democratic control of the economy -- Britain's included.

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