[asia-apec 673] MAI - NZ Media Coverage 21/9/98

[Gatt Watchdog]

Investment talks resume after 3 months - The Dominion, Wellington, NZ
21 September 1998

By Cathie Bell

Government officials have resumed talks about the Multilateral
Agreement on Investment three months after the Cabinet issued
instructions for a "pause" in negotiations.

Treasurer and Finance Minister Bill Birch said in response to a
written parliamentary question from Alliance leader Jim Anderton
that the first meeting with other countries' officials about the
agreement had been held in Wellington at the end of July.

Officials from the Treasury and Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry
had talked about the agreement with a Canadian foreign affairs and
international trade department official when he was in Wellington
for air services negotiations, because the official was also
Canada's chief negotiator on the agreement, he said.

Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry officials also took the
opportunity of regular annual discussions with their Australian
counterparts on multilateral trade issues to discuss Australia's
views on the agreement at a meeting in Canberra on August 20.

"On the same day, the foreign affairs and trade ministry officials
met with Australian Treasury officials to discuss Australian views
on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment," Mr Birch said.

General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs Watchdog [sic - GATT
Watchdog] spokeswoman Leigh Cookson said the agreement was about
to "rear its ugly head again".

She said American contacts had told her group that negotiators
from the United States, Europe and Canada had been having
bilateral meetings to discuss the agreement and exceptions to it.

"United States negotiators have described recent discussions on
the agreement as 'clearing cobwebs' and working out how to move on
to resolve the many disagreements which have threatened to derail
negotiations."

Ms Cookson said the resumption of talks in October was expected to
lead to a further meeting in April with the aim of concluding the
agreement before the World Trade Organisation started its next
trade-liberalisation round.

"The New Zealand Government and others who want to push ahead
further and faster with free trade and investment show few signs
of rethinking their economic direction in the wake of the
international economic crises which many critics of unregulated
markets have long predicted."