Your Money or Your Life!

GLOSSARY/293

is the liberalisation of investments. The projected instrument to
achieve this is the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI),
which the OECD was set to approve when France withdrew from
discussions in October 1998. The MAI, which was originally decided
upon at the ministerial meeting of the OECD in May 1995, targets all
investments: direct (industry, services, natural resources) and
portfolio. It provides protection mechanisms, especially for the total
repatriation of profits. The WTO will doubtless raise the MAI from the
dead for renewed consideration by member-states.