ABSTRACT
One of the main demands articulated by the civil society movement in relation to the OECD draft Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) is the incorporation of a clause on 'Not Lowering Standards in the area of Environment and Labour'. Assuming that the target for the MAI is the developing countries, it must be admitted that in some of them standards have been lower than those that prevail in developed countries. While the basic framework draft of the MAI was nearly ready by December 1997, nearly 600 pages of reservations and exceptions were filed by the member nations of the OECD. The OECD MAI aimed to secure increased rights for business and responsibilities for host countries. The United States, at the instigation of its big business lobbies, pushed the developed world to launch negotiations on the MAI in early 1995 in the OECD, even though a multilateral forum for trade, the World Trade Organization, had just been established.
