New International Law will Affect Farmers in Developing Countries

Backgrounder

New International Law will Affect Farmers in Developing Countries
There is a new international agreement that may become law in 1998. It’s called the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, or MAI. This agreement is being written by the world’s richest countries. Yet it may affect you, your family and your community. Today we’re going to talk about how and why it could affect you.

To understand the MAI, we should first talk about how national governments can protect their citizens. Each country in the world is different — it has different kinds of people, cultures, occupations, climate and land. Each country has different values too, different ideas of what is important. Governments have the ability to protect what is important in their country. For example, many countries limit the actions of foreign investors in their country. Sometimes foreign companies must hire local workers if they want to build a factory. Some countries require investors to spend money to help local communities. In some cases companies cannot make or sell poisonous chemicals. And governments often buy their supplies only from national suppliers.

But national governments may not be permitted to protect their people in these ways any longer. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment may make governments powerless to protect their land or their people.

What is the Multilateral Agreement on Investment?

The MAI is designed to be a set of rules for international investment. It is being written by a group of industrialized countries who belong to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, also know as the OECD. The OECD countries haven’t yet agreed on the final version of the MAI, but it may become law sometime in 1998. The MAI gives international investors rights and freedoms that cannot be limited by governments. For example, the MAI states that governments must treat foreign investors as well as or better than domestic companies. Governments cannot place special conditions on foreign investors. If the MAI passes, governments may not be able to restrict foreign investment in agriculture or other important industries. Companies could sue governments that try to enforce these kinds of conditions. It is also possible that the MAI will not respect international agreements such as United Nations conventions or environmental agreements like the ones made at the Earth Summit.

How will the MAI affect farmers in developing countries?

If the MAI is passed, the government of your country may not be able to stop a large company from cutting down all your rainforest to make furniture for people in rich countries. They may not be able to stop companies from bringing in foreign workers to run the oil fields or mines that they own.

If the MAI is passed, your government may not be able to stop large agricultural companies from buying up farmland, and planting crops to sell in rich countries. These companies would transform agricultural land into large plantations to grow cash crops and sell them overseas. This would have a devastating effect on food security. Instead of being able to grow enough food for all their people, countries would be more and more dependent on large companies to distribute food. Farmers all over the world would be directly competing with each other, and only the very rich farmers would survive. Many small-scale farmers could lose their income and their land, and, because of the MAI, their governments would be powerless to help.

What can small-scale farmers do?

Many people all over the world are protesting the MAI and similar laws. Groups of farmers in many countries have organized to fight international trade and investment agreements that hurt farmers in poor countries. For example, since 1992 in India, hundreds of thousands of farmers have protested international trade agreements similar to the MAI. There are organizations in almost every country of the world that are organizing to fight against the MAI.
Find out which organizations are fighting the MAI in your country. Talk to other farmers about the MAI. Hold village meetings, or invite someone to talk to your community about the MAI. Tell local decision makers about your concerns. Spread the word about the MAI, and help educate people and organize them to voice their opinions. Your voice and your actions, together with those of your neighbours and farmers everywhere, can make a difference.

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