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Multilateral Agreement On Investment
The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was a draft agreement negotiated in secret between members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) between 1995 and 1998. It sought to establish a new body of universal investment laws that would grant corporations unconditional rights to engage in financial operations around the world, without any regard to national laws and citizens' rights. The draft gave corporations a right to sue governments if national health, labor or environment legislation threatened their interests. When its draft became public in 1997, it drew widespread criticism from civil society groups and developing countries, particularly over the possibility that the agreement would make it difficult to regulate foreign investors. After an intense global campaign was waged against the MAI by the treaty's critics, the host nation France announced in October 1998 that it would not support the agreement, effectively preventing its adoption du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organisation For Economic Co-operation And Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum whose member countries describe themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices, and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. The majority of OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI), and are regarded as developed countries. Their collective population is 1.38 billion. , the OECD member countries collectively comprised 62.2% of global nominal GDP (US$49.6 trillion) and 42.8% of global GDP ( Int$54.2 trillion) at purchasing power parity. The OECD is an official United Nations observer. In April 1948 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agreement On Trade-Related Aspects Of Intellectual Property Rights
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations. TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990 and is administered by the WTO. The TRIPS agreement introduced intellectual property law into the multilateral trading system for the first time and remains the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property to date. In 2001, developing countries, concerned that developed countries were insisting on an overly narrow reading of TRIPS, initiated a round of talks that resulted in the Doha Declaration. The Doha declaration is a WTO statement that clarifies the scope of TRIPS, sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratchet Effect
A ratchet effect is an instance of the restrained ability of human processes to be reversed once a specific thing has happened, analogous with the mechanical ratchet that holds the spring tight as a clock is wound up. It is related to the phenomena of featuritis and scope creep in the manufacture of various consumer goods, and of mission creep in military planning. In sociology, "ratchet effects refer to the tendency for central controllers to base next year's targets on last year's performance, meaning that managers who expect still to be in place in the next target period have a perverse incentive not to exceed targets even if they could easily do so". Examples Famine cycle Garrett Hardin, a biologist and environmentalist, used the phrase to describe how food aid keeps people alive who would otherwise die in a famine. They live and multiply in better times, making another bigger crisis inevitable, since the supply of food has not been increased. The ratchet effect first cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gazette (Montreal)
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of the 20th century. It is one of the French-speaking province's last two English-language dailies; the other is the ''Sherbrooke Record'', which serves the anglophone community in Sherbrooke and the Eastern Townships southeast of Montreal. Founded in 1778 by Fleury Mesplet, ''The Gazette'' is Quebec's oldest daily newspaper and Canada's oldest daily newspaper still in publication. The oldest newspaper overall is the English-language '' Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'', which was established in 1764 and is published weekly. History Fleury Mesplet founded a French-language weekly newspaper called ''La Gazette du commerce et littéraire, pour la ville et district de Montréal'' on June 3, 1778. It was the first entirely French-language newspaper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Race To The Bottom
Race to the bottom is a socio-economic phrase to describe either government deregulation of the business environment or reduction in corporate tax rates, in order to attract or retain usually foreign economic activity in their jurisdictions. While this phenomenon can happen between countries as a result of globalization and free trade, it also can occur within individual countries between their sub-jurisdictions (states, localities, cities). It may occur when competition increases between geographic areas over a particular sector of trade and production. The effect and intent of these actions is to lower labor rates, cost of business, or other factors (pensions, environmental protection and other externalities) over which governments can exert control. This deregulation lowers the cost of production for businesses. Countries/localities with higher labor, environmental standards, or taxes can lose business to countries/localities with less regulation, which in turn makes them want ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minister Of International Trade (Canada)
The Minister of International Trade Diversification () was a minister of the Crown position in the Canadian Cabinet who was responsible for the federal government's international trade portfolio. Along with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, the office was one of the three ministers who led Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian foreign affairs department. Since the 2019 federal election, the international trade portfolio is now overseen by the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, who remains one of the three ministers of the Crown responsible for Global Affairs Canada. History The post was first established in 1983 as the Minister for International Trade. This title changed to Minister of International Trade under Prime Minister Paul Martin when he split the former Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. On 18 July 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau changed the ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergio Marchi (politician)
Sergio Marchi, (born May 12, 1956), is a Canadian politician and former diplomat, who served as a federal Liberal Member of Parliament and cabinet minister and, later, as an ambassador. Marchi was born in Argentina to an Italian family who subsequently emigrated to Canada. He first entered politics at the municipal level, where he was elected Alderman for Ward 1 in North York (now part of Toronto) in 1982. He was subsequently elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1984 election as the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for the Toronto-area riding of York West. When the Liberals came to power in the 1993 election, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien brought Marchi into the Canadian Cabinet as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. He also served as Minister of the Environment and Minister of International Trade in 1997. Marchi left politics in 1999 and was appointed as Canadian ambassador to the World Trade Organization, and the UN Agencies, in Geneva , ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Z Magazine
Z Communications is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Verso, 2002. p. 296. It is, in broad terms, ideologically libertarian socialist, anti-capitalist, and heavily influenced by participatory economics, although much of its content is focused on critical commentary of foreign affairs. Its publications include ''Z Magazine'', ''ZNet'', and ''Z Video''. Since early November 2022, they have all been regrouped under the name ''ZNetwork''. History ''Zeta Magazine'' was founded by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent in 1987, both of whom had previously co-founded South End Press. It was renamed ''Z Magazine'' in 1989. Founded in 1994, Z Media Institute provides classes and other sessions in how to start and produce alternative media, how to better understand media, and how to develop organising skills. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade. It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, thus replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had been established in 1948. The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization, with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP. The WTO facilitates trade in goods, services and intellectual property among participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements, which usually aim to reduce or eliminate tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions; these agreements are signed by representatives of member governmentsUnderstanding the WTO' Handbook at WTO of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Nations Conference On Trade And Development
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and reports to that body and the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). UNCTAD is composed of 195 member states and works with nongovernmental organizations worldwide; its permanent secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland. The primary objective of UNCTAD is to formulate policies relating to all aspects of development, including trade, aid, transport, finance and technology. It was created in response to concerns among developing countries that existing international institutions like GATT (now replaced by the World Trade Organization), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank were not properly organized to handle the particular problems of developing countries; UNCTAD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and an Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism. Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Charter Treaty
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international agreement that establishes a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the energy industry, principally the fossil fuel industry. The treaty covers all aspects of commercial energy activities including trade, transit, investments and energy efficiency. The treaty contains dispute resolution procedures both for States Parties to the Treaty (vis-à-vis other States) and as between States and the investors of other States, who have made investments in the territory of the former. Initially, the Energy Charter process aimed to integrate the energy sectors of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War into the broader European and world markets. Its role, however, extends beyond east–west cooperation and, through legally binding instruments, free trade in global energy markets and non-discrimination to stimulate foreign direct investments and global cross-border trade. Awards and settlements of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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