NAFTA/TRADE DEALS: “Three of the nation’s most prominent trade associations warned that any efforts to weaken arbitration panels at the heart of the North American Free Trade Agreement ‘will serve to undermine business community support’ for Nafta renegotiations.
The letter to the Trump administration from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and Business Roundtable comes in response to a proposal by the U.S. trade representative to make U.S. participation in the panels voluntary. The panels are called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system.
ISDS is a form of international arbitration in which corporations can sue governments for damages if they believe governmental decisions improperly diminish the value of their foreign investments. The arbitration panels, which operate as alternatives to domestic court systems, have been criticized by labor and environmental groups as giving corporations—and only corporations—a way to circumvent domestic laws and regulations.
The USTR plan, as reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, would essentially make the ISDS system voluntary in the future, meaning the three Nafta countries would need to ‘opt in.’
Representatives of the U.S., Canada and Mexico kicked off talks to renegotiate Nafta last week in Washington, and the talks will pick up again in Mexico City Sept. 1.”
-Bob Davis, “Big Business Groups Affirm Support for Nafta Arbitration Panels,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 24, 2017 12:18pm