The Globalization of the Economy and the Church
MAI, they often engage in practices that covertly help local business. Under the MAI their actions are covered, and no doubt there will be a fertile source for future investors-state disputes. By removing the responsibilities towards national governments, the MAI will create a global, self-governing organization, to the detriment of nations. The corporations will make the rules of the law for the governments, and not the governments elected by the people. Foreign investors ask for unconditional access to the markets.
It is suggested that the United Nations and the Commission on Sustainable Development, to do a review of MAI, in particular on its effects on the environment and on development. For now the MAI it is suspended in its European sessions until the fall of 1998.
The US, and more recently other major industrialized countries, on behalf of their transnationals have long pushed for the World Trade Organization rules to limit the abilities of governments receiving foreign investment to impose performance requirements, such as achieving a certain level of domestic content or export sales, or to transfer technology. They have pushed for an opening of closed or regulated national markets to foreign investment. The MAI will further undercut our ability to create jobs, maintain the national cultures and public services such as education and health. Once signed, the provisions of the MAI would apply for 20 years. The MAI is the charter of rights for transnational corporations for the 21st century.
In these circumstances the Church has a word to say on behalf of the people that She cares for. The Church always cares for its people in their material and especially spiritual needs. We are called to a life by faith in God, a life of grace. The law of the New Testament is the "Gospel of Christ, the Son of God"(Mark 1:1). Contrasted with the Old Law, which is a pedagogic and legislative function, the New Law is a law of grace that give the power of freedom and redemption, of joy and of promises. Thus, the entrance door in the Christian ethic is the freedom of the grace, not the constraint of the Law and of the punishment. The faith is an act of obedience in freedom, not the observance of the law in submission. Christians are received in the Church through grace, which is the gift and the medium of the
Latest Articles