CANADA/MEXICO/NAFTA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Mexico and Canada have rejected a proposal by the Trump administration to remake a corporate arbitration system that is a key part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to people involved in talks to update the pact.
The two countries’ resistance to the U.S. plan to change the system, known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, could lead to its removal altogether from Nafta, as neither Canada nor Mexico is interested in allowing countries to opt out of the system, as the U.S. has proposed. The U.S. made the proposal with an eye to opting out of the ISDS system, which it says erodes the sovereignty of the U.S. by allowing multinational companies to circumvent domestic courts.
Under the dispute mechanism, arbitration panels now hear complaints from corporations that their overseas investments were unfairly treated by an action by another Nafta government. The system is widely backed by multinational businesses because it allows them to avoid lengthy court battles and potentially discriminatory treatment abroad.
Officials from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to comment on the proposal or the trading partners’ reaction to it, saying the negotiations are ongoing.”
-William Mauldin, “Canada, Mexico Reject Proposal to Rework Nafta Corporate Arbitration System,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 28, 2018 05:44pm