Defending the Legacy of Rio: the Civil Society Campaign against the MAI

Abstract

The scale and strength of the world-wide campaign against the proposed MAI¹ demonstrated the fundamental impact of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit on international economic negotiations, and the importance of the core Rio principles of participation, consultation and sustainable development (UNEP, 1992). The MAI negotiation was initially followed by only a few NGOs, starting in mid-1996, but the network of interested groups grew at an amazing pace as its implications became widely known (WWF, 1996; CUTS, 1996; CI, 1996). The first formal NGO consultation with OECD negotiators in October 1997 was attended by over 70 people representing more than 30 organizations from all regions of the world. The joint statement arising from that meeting was endorsed by over 600 development, consumer, environment, citizens, human rights and indigenous peoples organizations (FoE-I, 1998a). The campaign also spread to encompass local authorities, state/provincial governments, parliamentarians, affected industries and developing country governments.² Unions, through their official representatives to the OECD, have generally not been against the MAI as a whole, concentrating their efforts on improving MAI clauses on labour standards. However, as opposition from other groups grew, more radical voices emerged, especially in France. A significant point of the campaign came in March 1998 when the European Parliament approved a resolution which was highly critical of the MAI by 437 votes to 8 (European Parliament, 1998).