Multilateral Agreement on Investment

Negotiations on a multilateral agreement on investment (MAI) were launched by governments at the Annual Meeting of the OECD Council at Ministerial level in May 1995. The proposed objective of the MAI was to provide a broad multilateral framework for international investment with high standards for the liberalisation of investment regimes and investment protection and with effective dispute settlement procedures, open to non-Members. Negotiations were discontinued in April 1998 and will not be resumed.

• Draft MAI Negotiating Text (pdf)
  This document consolidates the text of the agreement considered in the course of the MAI negotiations up to the point where they were discontinued in April 1998.
• Commentary to the Draft MAI Negotiating Text (pdf)
  This document contains the commentary to the text of the agreement considered in the course of the MAI negotiations.
• MAI Document Database
  In February 2002, OECD released a large quantity of documents relating to the negotiations.
• Relationships between the MAI and selected Multilateral Environmental Agreements
  In October 1997, the Negotiating Group asked the OECD to "examine the relationship between the MAI and existing and proposed multilateral agreements on the environment".  The Negotiating Group's main concern was whether there would be any incompatibilities between the MAI and existing or proposed Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). This paper appraises such compatibility both in a strict legal sense and in a broader context.