Investment Rules for the Global Economy

Xavier De Vanssay is an associate professor of economics at York
University in Toronto.

Initially slated for completion by May 1997, the Multilateral Agreement
on Investments (MAI), currently being negotiated at the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, has been delayed
until 1998. The issues at stake are incredibly complex and are part of
an even more ambitious agenda that has been called “market access.”

This volume is a guide to investment rulemaking for the new world
economy. It contains a selection of (updated) papers, originally
presented at a session jointly organized by the Canadian Economics
Association, the C.D. Howe Institute, and the OECD in June 1995. The
authors are lawyers or economists who come from academia or the public
sector. All are convinced of the wisdom of a deepening economic
integration. Indeed, opponents of globalization, or those who are
skeptical about it, will find little sympathy for their views in this
book.

The papers revolve around two dominant (and complementary) themes. The
first is that, in the new world economy, free trade in goods and
services goes hand in hand with the freedom to invest wherever it is
most profitable (hence the need for a comprehensive agreement on foreign
direct investments). The second theme is the pioneering intellectual
role played by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Should that
document constitute a blueprint for the new MAI? Clearly, the authors
expect so: “The investment provisions of the NAFTA represent a
state-of-the-art codification of disciplines and procedures concerning
international capital movements.”

Although repetitious at times (nine essays deal broadly with the same
issues), this collection provides the reader with a wealth of
information as well as a clearer understanding of international
investment rulemaking. The inclusion of both a name index and a subject
index would have been useful.