Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Lang and other experts on international trade will offer insight into a controversial new international investment agreement Friday, March 6, at the Cornell Law School.

Lang will deliver the keynote address at the 1998 Cornell International Law Journal symposium, "The International Regulation of Foreign Direct Investment: Obstacles and Evolution," at 6 p.m. All symposium sessions will be held in the MacDonald Moot Court Room of Myron Taylor Hall.

Lang, the nation's number two trade negotiator, will discuss the new Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). According to Business Week, the new agreement "would bar Congress, state legislatures and city councils from using trade sanctions to punish nations for human rights abuses, violations of labor standards and religious persecution." The trade pact also would change rules governing foreign ownership as well as regulate some $315 billion in foreign investments.

Also commenting on the investment accord will be two other key players in the arena of international trade: Wesley Scholz, director of the Office of Investment Affairs in the U.S. State Department, and Rainer Geiger, deputy director of financial, fiscal and enterprise affairs for the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development in Paris.

Scholz and Geiger will be panelists for a discussion on "Regulating Foreign Direct Investment: Institutional Arrangement" March 6 at 2:30 p.m. Also participating will be Patrick Juillard, professor at the UniversitŽ de Paris, and Robert Stumberg, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. The moderator will be Professor John Barcel— III of the Cornell Law School.

The symposium continues Saturday, March 7, with the following panel discussions:

-- "National Treatment of Foreign Investment: Exceptions and Conditions" at 9:30 a.m. Panelists are Edward Graham, senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics; Daniel Price, partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy LLP; Mark Weisbrot of the Preamble Center for Public Policy; and Donald Wallace Jr., professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. The moderator is Professor Muna Ndulo of the Cornell Law School.

-- "Environmental and Labor Standards for Foreign Investors: Whose Standards?" at 1:30 p.m. Panelists are Stephen Canner, vice president of the U.S. Council for International Business; Lance Compa, senior lecturer at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations; and Mark Vallianatos, policy associate at Friends of the Earth. The moderator is Professor David Wippman of the Cornell Law School.

The Cornell International Law Journal, founded in 1967, is one of the oldest international law journals in publication. The journal addresses issues of international law in its annual symposiums. Last year the journal examined international peace agreements, such as the Dayton and Oslo accords. Peter W. Galbraith, U.S. ambassador to Croatia, delivered the keynote address.