Multinational Agreement on Investment

Organization For Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states are negotiating a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) with a tentative target date of May 1998 for completion of the negotiations ("A multilateral," 1996). The proposed MAI will be open to all OECD member states and will be open to accession by non-member states. The proposed MAI, if ratified and implemented, will be the first multilateral treaty providing what its proponents refer to as high standards for the liberalization and protection of international investment, and for effectively settling disputes associated with such investment.

The proposed OECD-based MAI is assessed in this study. The findings of the research performed are presented in discussions dealing with (1) the need for an OECD-based MAI, (2) barriers to negotiating an OECD-based MAI, (3) the structure required for an effective OECD-based MAI, (4) the implications of the implementation of an OECD-based MAI, and (5) the prospects for the ratification of an OECD-based MAI.

The Need for A Multilateral Agreement on Investment

A widely accepted premise is that firms expand to foreign markets in order to exploit the monopoly they possess over rent-yielding advantages such as economies of scale, and superior product and process technologies

. . .
ly be no accident that the thrust towards alliance capitalism first originated in Japan, whose culture especially values such qualities as teamwork, trust, consensus, shared responsibility, loyalty, and commitment, which are the essential ingredients of any successful partnership" (Dunning, 1995, p. 471). These qualities, together with the recognition that, by improving quality control throughout the value chain and cutting inventories to the minimum, "essentially enabled Japanese producers, particularly in the fabricating sectors, to break into their competitors' markets, and to adopt the production strategies and working practices that conformed to the resource and institutional advantages of their home countries. Indeed, most researchers are agreed that the two most significant competitive advantages of Japanese firms that evolved during the post-World War II period were, first, the way they restructured their production and intra-firm transactions, and second, the way they managed and organized their vertical and horizontal relationships with other firms" (Dunning, 1995, p. 471). The Spur of Globalization Globalization·the spread of economic innovations around the world and the political and cultural adjustments that accom
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Agreement Investment, European Community, MAI Signatory, Balasubramanyam Greenaway, OECD-based MAI, United Nations, DeToni Zipponi, MAI OECD, Law United, Trade Development, proposed mai, european community, oecd-based mai, japanese fdi, united nations, competitive advantages, value chain, multilateral agreement investment, conference trade development, conference trade, developing economies, foreign investment, balasubramanyam greenaway 1992, united nations conference, nations conference trade,
Approximate Word count = 9353
Approximate Pages = 37 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Multinational Agreement on Investment