heureusement, ici, c'est james

Foreign corporate challenges to Canadian laws continue to grow under NAFTA, says the CCPA, weakening our environmental protection and natural resource management regulations at the whim of profit-seekers.

CCPA calls the trend "disturbing," claiming that these cases have a good chance at success due to the poor wording of the agreement. So far, of the 18 claims against Canada, all three have been decided. In all three cases, settlements have been awarded in favour of corporate interests, one of them out-of-court. Mexico lost all three of their cases, while all four of the U.S. cases have been dismissed. Smell any national bias in these decisions?

Is the Conservative government "standing up for Canada" here?

Far from it. The CCPA points out that our government has been expanding the use of the defective mechanism through new bilateral trade agreements with Peru, Colombia and South Korea. (Yes, Colombia.) Each bilateral agreement contains a version of NAFTA’s chapter 11 rules, "which permit foreign investors to challenge government measures that allegedly diminish the value of their investments.”

Labels: CCPA, cons, environment, NAFTA