The MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) is a charter of rights and freedoms for international investors that the Liberal Government was negotiating with the other 28 industrialized countries of the OECD.

The Canadian public, along with the NDP, and various OECD governments rejected the MAI as a threat to democratic, sustainable and social development. As a result, negotiations on the MAI collapsed in the fall of 1998 but there are ongoing attempts to re-start the negotiations elsewhere.

The NDP opposes attempts to re-introduce a MAI-type agreement with the 130 countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO), at talks toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) or at any international institution.

The MAI approach to globalization is fundementally flawed. It seeks to give special status to international investors, while making workers, environments, societies, and cultures subservient to investor rights.

The NDP is fighting for an entirely different type of international agreement by which the world might achieve a rules-based global economy that protects workers, the environment, and the ability of governments to act in the public interest.