X-WebTV-Signature: 1 ETAsAhRvmM2TRb9pJjmv+/0LKmmVZ1AeYQIUXki+77dej1RMRkV15q9TRN9dUE8= From: xcruz@webtv.net (Robert Chavez) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 22:54:34 -0600 (MDT) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Fwd: Who Approved This House Resolution? (fwd) --WebTV-Mail-570076828-5801 --WebTV-Mail-570076828-5801 [207.79.35.93]) by postoffice-121.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.8/po.gso.24Feb98) [207.79.35.90]) by mailsorter-103.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.8/ms.gso.01Apr98) id UAA01560; Mon, 5 Oct 1998 20:38:04 -0700 (PDT) X-WebTV-Signature: 1 ETAtAhR3VSM9AUUKlRE1VVcNqSHByiAT+QIVALBnYD0jmK1t6O4iFltGovn7taaM From: xcruz@webtv.net (Robert Chavez) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 21:38:04 -0600 (MDT) To: xcruz@webtv.net Subject: Who Approved This House Resolution? (fwd) Who approved this house resolution? 10-5-98 American Cause Plant Closings, IMF Expansion and MAI - HR 4569 While all of us, including Congress were focused on the funding amount for IMF - increasing it from $3.5 to $18 billion - behind closed doors IMF expansion and the MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investments) were slipped into Section 601(a) of the Foreign Operations bill (HR 4569). This bill along with eight other appropriations bills have been crammed into one massive Continuing Resolution which will come up this Thursday or Friday. Hidden in Section 601 of the Foreign Operations bill are two of the issues we've been tracking: expanding the funding for the IMF and the dreaded MAI. The word from our contact on the Hill is that this Resolution is set up so that "no member of Congress will vote against the Continuing Resolution because "no" votes will be construed as supporting a government shutdown". Note: Section 601(a) has had no House hearings by any committee and the bill's language constitutes a significant end-run for the globalists and multinational corporation free trade agenda. Section 601(a) of the Foreign Operations Appropriation bill contains investment deregulation conditions that would automatically apply if a deal is made appropriating the $14.5 billion quota increase to the IMF. This section conditions the quota increase appropriation on requiring that the IMF board of directors "publicly agree" to require borrowing countries to: "liberalize restrictions on investment" and establish the equivalent of the MAI standard of national treatment on investment through "guaranteeing nondiscriminatory treatment in insolvency proceedings between domestic and foreign creditors". Section 601(a) will have the effect of encouraging plant closings in the U.S., since the IMF will be guaranteeing conditions that multinational corporations seek when they transfer capital from the U.S. to developing nations. Those conditions are also now the subject of multilateral negotiation in the MAI. It will slip in a backdoor MAI by requiring the IMF to change its charter to add core provisions of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, a controversial treaty viewed by conservatives and liberals alike as a threat to global economic stability and national sovereignty. MAI was to have been signed last year, but opposition by Congress and parliamentarians in other countries has kept MAI from being signed to date. (Sec. 601(a)(3.) Importantly, Section 601(a) will apply to South America, Central America and Africa as well as other regions of the world. This fact underscores the danger posed to U.S. jobs by this section of the bill, since those regions are more likely to be utilized as export platforms for production intended for the U.S. market than Asia. Promote further IMF mission expansion by requiring that the IMF now become the enforcer of NAFTA, GATT-WTO and any future-agreed trade and investment pacts. (Sec. 601(a)(1) Patrick J. Buchanan - Chairman Angela "Bay" Buchanan - President THE AMERICAN CAUSE 6862 Elm Street, Suite 210, McLean, Virginia 22101 theamericancause@theamericancause.org --WebTV-Mail-570076828-5801--