The Assistant Treasurer, Senator Rod Kemp, said today that it was now clear that the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) would not go ahead in its current form, following a recent meeting of officials at the OECD.
The MAI was being negotiated by members of the OECD, including Australia, and eight non-OECD participants, with the aim of providing a transparent, effective and comprehensive framework for international investment.
Officials at the meeting supported the need for a transparent and certain global investment framework, and accordingly agreed to continue work on developing an international framework of rules for investment.
The MAI text, however, will now only be a reference point for any further work.
Senator Kemp said the Australian Government had indicated for some time that it had a number of serious concerns with the draft text of the treaty as it stood. He said that other countries also had substantial concerns.
Australian officials took the opportunity at the recent meeting to note that future OECD processes needed to be more transparent and open and that non-OECD member countries should be more involved in the negotiations; and to encourage that the agreement should be pared back to core elements. They also reaffirmed Australia’s support for ensuring that governments continue to have the sovereign right to regulate to protect and promote environmental and other important objectives.
Senator Kemp said that the Australian Government is carefully considering its approach to any future consultations on the issue.
Senator Kemp noted that the Coalition Government had put in place new treaty making procedures to ensure that treaties receive proper public and Parliamentary scrutiny before any binding action is taken.
He also re-iterated the Government’s commitment not to sign any treaty unless it is demonstrably in the national interest to do so.
2 November 1998
Contact: Penny Farnsworth (02) 6277 7360