Trond Andresen
>The Globe and Mail
>Wednesday, April 29, 1998
>
>HOW THE NET KILLED THE MAI
>
>Grassroots groups used their own globalization to derail deal
>
> By Madelaine Drohan
>
>PARIS -- High-powered politicians had reams of statistics and analysis on
>why a set of international investing rules would make the world a better
>place.
>
>They were no match, however, for a global band of grassroots
>organizations, which, with little more than computers and access to the
>Internet, helped derail a deal.
>
>Indeed, international negotiations have been transformed after this week's
>successful rout of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) by
>opposition groups, which -- alarmed by the trend toward economic
>globalization -- used some globalization of their own to fight back.
>
>Using the Internet's capability to broadcast information instantly
>worldwide, groups such as the Council of Canadians and Malaysia-based
>the Third World Network have been able to keep each other informed of
>the latest developments and supply information gleaned in one country that
>may prove embarrassing to a government in another. By pooling their
>information they have broken through the wall of secrecy that traditionally
>surrounds international negotiations, forcing governments to deal with their
>complaints.
>
>"We are in constant contact with our allies in other countries," said Maude
>Barlow, the Council of Canadians' chairwoman. "If a negotiator says
>something to someone over a glass of wine, we'll have it on the Internet
>within an hour, all over the world."
>
>The success of that networking was clear this week when ministers from
>the 29 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
>Development admitted that the global wave of protest had swamped the
>deal.
>
>"This is the first successful Internet campaign by non-governmental
>organizations," said one diplomat involved in the negotiations. "It's been
>very effective."
>
>The OECD, which represents largely the major industrial economies,
>yesterday halted the negotiations aimed at developing international rules for
>foreign investment, similar to those for trade in goods. It is unclear when,
>or even if, the OECD will try again.
>
>The irony in this outcome is that the OECD, which has been an ardent
>advocate of globalization and has done much research into its effects, did
>not recognize that advocacy groups would use cyber-globalization to
>further their own ends.
>
>OECD secretary-general Donald Johnston conceded that the OECD was
>caught flat-footed: "It's clear we needed a strategy on information,
>communication and explication," he told a press conference.
>
>The OECD's efforts to harness the Internet have not caught up in colour,
>content and consumer friendliness to those of the advocacy groups.
>
>For example, the OECD report released this week on the benefits of
>opening markets to trade and investment is a compilation of statistics and
>analysis written in language more readily understood by economists than by
>the average person. Instead of finding examples of real people who have
>benefited from globalization to help trade ministers make this case, the
>report repeats many of the same statistics on economic growth, investment
>and the dangers of protectionism.
>
>By comparison, hundreds of advocacy groups, in attempting to galvanize
>opposition to the MAI, used terms and examples that brought their
>message home to the public. Their sites on the Internet's Worldwide Web
>are colourful and easy to use, offering primers on the MAI that anyone
>could understand.
>
>Canadian Trade Minister Sergio Marchi has taken the OECD to task for its
>poor communications effort, although he agrees some of the blame must be
>shared by the member governments. He said the lesson he has learned is
>that "civil society" -- meaning public interest groups -- should be engaged
>much sooner in a negotiating process, instead of governments trying to
>negotiate around them.
>
>Ms. Barlow of the Council of Canadians, which says it has more than
>100,000 members, called the OECD report on the benefits of globalization
>"pathetic." In an interview in Paris, where she was taking part in a protest
>against the MAI, Ms. Barlow said the immediacy of the Internet has
>changed the dynamics of advocacy campaigns.
>
>She is a veteran of the campaigns against the Canada-U.S. free-trade
>agreement and the North American free-trade agreement. The Internet was
>not in widespread use when those campaigns were conducted.
>
>Today, however, advocacy groups make sure useful information ends up in
>the right hands right away. "If we know something that is sensitive to one
>government, we get it to our ally in that country instantly," she said. "I
>don't think governments will ever be able to do these kind of secret trade
>negotiations again."
>
>For example, when the Council of Canadians got its hands on a draft
>version of the MAI last year, it immediately posted it on its Web site and
>made sure allies around the world knew it was there through E-mail
>correspondence.
>
>The Internet also provides a low-cost way for groups in the Third World to
>get their message out and keep on top of developments. "All they need is
>one computer," Ms. Barlow said.
>
>The major Internet sites of these advocacy groups provide hyperlinks to
>others involved in the campaign, as well as phone numbers and E-mail
>addresses, and often bibliographies of relevant books.
>
>It adds up to a powerful tool that the advocacy groups are using to better
>effect than governments and the OECD at the moment. Ms. Barlow
>predicts that this advantage may not last now that the OECD members
>have seen its potential. "They'll be revving up their PR machines."
>
>But so are the advocacy groups. The next stage, she said, is to start making
>suggestions about what should be in trade agreements, rather than just
>opposing what the negotiators propose.
>
>The groups are already trading ideas on solutions, and another aspect of
>globalization -- the growing spread of English -- is easing their way.
>"Pretty well everybody speaks English," said Ms. Barlow.
>
>"It's the universal language."
>
>Tony Clarke, director of the Canadian Polaris Institute, stresses that anti-
>MAI groups such as his are not against all aspects of globalization -- their
>use of the Internet itself is proof of that.
>
>"We're against this model of economic globalization," he said, referring to
>the MAI. "But the global village, the idea of coming together and working
>together, is a great dream."
>
>Related Web sites
>
>The Council of Canadians and the Organization for Economic Co-
>operation and Development: http://www.canadians.org
>http://www.oecd.org
>
>