on Paris negotiating table

JEREMY NELSON VICTORIA (CUP)

After nearly four years of high- level discussions, the Multilateral Agreement on fnvéstment (MAI) has been declared dead by the 29 industrial nations involved in the negotiations.

The pact—which would have established international rules on investment—has been on life support since May, 1998 when lingering disputes between the countries and mounting public opposition forced a suspension of the Paris-based talks.

Negotiators finally pulled the plug on Tuesday when France refused to return to the table, cit- ing deep-seated concerns about the lack of labour, cultural and environmental protection in the MAI.

“Negotiators have no idea what is going to happen [next],” said Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow, who traveled to Paris to help lead international protests against the MAI. “Everything is up in the air.”

Critics say the pact would have threatened the sovereignty of individual states by placing too much power in the hands of multinational corporations.

After the collapse of the MAI talks, Canada’s Minister of Trade, Sergio Marchi, indicated he wanted to move the MAI to the World Trade Organization.

“T think the WTO is the mas- ter of its own house,” said Marchi, alluding to the fact that the WTO has a better track

record when it comes to success- fully negotiating agreements.

American negotiators took a different view.

“T don't think we would envi- sion moving this negotiation effectively into the WTO,” US trade spokesperson Jay Ziegler told the Globe and Mail.

“These negotiations have been floundering for a long time, and I think it’s fair to say no one knows how to bring it to clo- sure.”

Leaders of the anti-MAI, however, are isot celebrating vic- tory.

“What we have to remember is that the MAI is going to be active in other venues like APEC and the International Monetary Fund,” said Tony Clarke, co- author of the book MAI and the threat to Canadian Sovereignty.

“The proponents of the MAI—the big transnationals— are probably going to go under- ground for awhile and there'll be a period when we dont hear any- thing about it and then suddenly it will surface again.”

Concern about the MAI origi- nally arose in 1997 when a confi- dential copy of the draft text was leaked over the Internet.

If it had been signed, the MAI would have given new rights to large businesses, including the right to directly sue any govern- ment that passed a law interfer- ing with that business's ability to make profits.

The MAT also would have prevented governments from passing any new labour, environ- mental or cultural protection laws for a 20-year period.

Tentative deal averts strike at BC colleges

RICHMOND, BC (CP)

threatened strike by instructors that would have cancelled classes for

75,000 college students in British Columbia was averted when negotiators reached a tentative deal early today.

The instructors at the 15 com- munity colleges and institutes had planned to set up picket lines at 6 am Friday, October 23 if an agreement was not reached by midnight.

But negotiators stayed at the table past the deadline to get the deal.

John Waters of the Post- Secondary Employers’ Association of BC said the contract meets the wage guidelines set out by the province.

“It's within the government's monetary mandate of zero, zero

and two, and it also, I think, deals with other issues that have been difficult ones between the parties, particularly in employment securi- ty, educational technology,” Waters said.

Ed Lavalle of the College Institute Educators’ Association said the sticking point in the marathon negotiations was how the wage increase would be applied.

“How that two percent, which is two percent on a total wage bill, gets distributed on a wage grid, what the ongoing costs of it are,” Layalle said.

“There are a lot of complexi- ties in the simple slogan of zero, zero and two.”

About 8,000 teachers repre-

, sented by the College Institute

Educators’ Association of BC and the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union announced the

strike Wednesday after rejecting a comprehensive agreement pro- posed by the Post Secondary Employers’ Association.

College teachers have been without a contract since the end of March. The two sides began negotiating in February.

This is only the second time college teachers in British Columbia have bargained as a sin- gle unit and the first time they planned to walk out together, making it the largest strike by col- lege teachers in the province's his- tory.

Unions representing mainte- nance workers, support staff and other college employees announced Thursday that they would not cross picket lines set up by teachers.

The Canadian Federation of Students and most student unions supported the teachers.

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The Other Press

October 28.1998 Page 5