The Globalization of the Economy and the Church
Designed to provide protection for foreign investors in developing countries, the investor-state dispute process focuses strictly on setting investment disputes between individuals and the government. In the MAI, the term investment implies a very broad area. It encompasses every kind of asset owned or controlled directly or indirectly by an investor. This description includes, but is not limited to, enterprises, debt, equity, contract rights, claims to money, intellectual property, rights granted by law, such as loans, other tangible and intangible property, whether real or personal, and any related property rights. We can see the implication of these applications as in the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), where it was strongly argued that the MAI must not diminish Canada's cultural sovereignty, particularly our right to impose Canadian-content rules." There are environmental concerns for the application of the MAI as expressed by the West Coast Environmental Law. The examples can continue.
The international trade is restricted because of the effects of dumping and subsidizing.. The key question is why international trade lowers consumption possibilities and the answer is that not everyone shares in gain and some people even lose. On average the consumption possibilities increase. Free trade brings benefits to some and costs the others, with total benefits exceeding total costs. It is the uneven distribution of costs and benefits that is the principal source of impediment to achieving more liberal international trade.
With the MAI the customer, the foreign investor, will be our manager disposing of the resources of the country, of all kinds, without governmental participation. The only government that will have the power will be the global one, and the main focus will be on financial gain by the corporations.
The nations will suffer from this global centralization of the economy and it will be difficult to restore power to the national based economy. The Transnational Corporations will be the leading force of the world economy.
International trade is necessary and good as long as the participating companies respect the rules of the country in which they do their business. This sounds normal, doesn't it? Nobody would come into someone's else house to tell him what to do, for his own profit, and nobody would allow a foreign person to do what they want with his property.
While provinces and municipalities are not members of the MAI,
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