--------------------- Forwarded message: From: [log in to unmask] (MDOLAN) Sender: [log in to unmask] Reply-to: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] (Multiple recipients of list) Date: 97-04-27 20:50:01 EDT April 1997 Dear Friend: We are writing to ask for a small amount of your time to help shed more light on the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI). The MAI is is a dangerous new global investment treaty now under negotiation which is described in the enclosed materials. This has been a stealth negotiation that has gotten well down the road without public awareness -- including, until recently, the awareness of your snooping friends at Public Citizen. We know, we know -- just a couple weeks ago we wrote to you about NAFTA expansion and the Accountability Act and what you can do to influence the imminent congressional debate on "fast track". Please understand that the MAI and the "Campaign of Inquiry" (which we have designed to quickly raise public awareness about it) are as urgent as putting the kibosh on Clinton's hemispheric NAFTA expansion plans. In the short-term, this will take much less time. Last month, we teamed up with the Preamble Center for Public Policy, a new, independent research and public education organization based here in D.C. Our collaboration is designed to find out more about the MAI and the forum in which it is being negotiated, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and to alert the public, as well as policy-makers, about what we have found to be an extreme proposal. Ultimately, with your help too, we hope to direct enough public and political scrutiny onto this corporate bill of rights to slow down the high-speed, secretive OECD negotiations and fire up a debate about the MAI that includes the many potentially affected communities and constituencies. Simply put, the MAI will eliminate all remaining mechanisms and powers federal, state and local governments have to regulate investment, including foreign investment. It will also effectively forbid laws or local ordinances which give any favor to local ownership over absentee ownership. As the enclosed materials explain more fully, the implications are enormous for a broad range of progressive corporate regulations and community investment policies. Moreover, the MAI represents a quantum expansion of corporate power beyond the damage done by NAFTA and GATT; this treaty will allow corporations to sue countries directly if a corporation thinks the country isn't giving them all the promised goodies under the treaty. This startling provision is called "investor to state dispute resolution". Finally, the whole negotiation process is being conducted in incredible secrecy. The banks, big corporations and the OECD rich-country club would prefer to conduct and conclude this outrageous treaty without public scrutiny or political accountability. Their mania for secrecy is our best strategic clue -- time for the Dracula strategy because this is one evil pact that will not survive sunshine. Thus our challenge is to expose the on-going MAI negotiations to as much public sunshine and scrutiny as we can collectively help focus. The premise of the Campaign of Inquiry is that neither our Representatives in Washington nor the media nor our state officials have any idea of the trouble in store for them with the MAI. Starting this week, we will begin to educate ourselves as well as the "grass-tops" opinion leaders by simply asking the right questions to the right people. To find out more about the MAI and our Campaign of Inquiry, check out the new section on our web page. Working together, we can create a lot of resonance around this issue, if not a movement against this unbelievable corporate power grab. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact either the Global Trade Watch team here at Public Citizen or our colleagues at the Preamble Center (202-265-3263). This may be the first you've heard of the MAI, but it won't be the last. Sincerely, Lori Wallach Michael Dolan Director Field Director **************************************************************************** /s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen Join the Global Trade Watch list server. We will keep you up to date on trade policy and politics here in Washington, D.C. To subscribe, send this message: "SUBSCRIBE TW-LIST" [followed by your name, your organizational affiliation and the state in which you live] to [log in to unmask] WE EDUCATE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO ORGANIZE THEM. WE DON'T ORGANIZE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO EDUCATE THEM. Fred Ross, Sr.