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Commentary :: Miscellaneous
NAFTA's Chapter 11 Provision Protects Corporate Profits, Undermines...
Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Dan Seligman, director of the Sierra Club's Trade Program.
NAFTA's Chapter 11 Provision Protects Corporate Profits, Undermines Health & Safety Laws
Opponents fighting against similar measure for proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas Treaty
Interview by Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus.
The ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, ten years ago united Canada, the U.S. and Mexico in a continental trading block. Opponents of NAFTA focused attention on labor and environmental concerns, but in the end these areas were relegated to weak side agreements with no mechanism for enforcement. But, one important provision, known as Chapter 11, escaped the notice of many critics.
Chapter 11 gives corporations unprecedented power over governments because it spells out the terms under which investors -- that is, multinational corporations -- must be compensated for losses incurred by expropriation through government action. But the wording is so broad that it's been interpreted to mean corporations will be compensated for loss of profit for any reason, including the enforcement of health and safety regulations.
Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Dan Seligman, director of the Sierra Club's Trade Program. He discusses the impact Chapter 11 has already had on trade among NAFTA partners and the danger of a Chapter 11-type provision being included in the much larger Free Trade Area of the Americas -- a hemispheric-wide treaty now being negotiated(A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found at www.btlonline.org).
For more information, call the Sierra Club at (202) 675-2387 or visit the group's Web site at www.sierraclub.org/trade
www.wpkn.org/wpkn/news/btl032202.html
betweenthelines-AT-snet.net
c 2002 Between the Lines C/O WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, Connecticut USA.
Opponents fighting against similar measure for proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas Treaty
Interview by Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus.
The ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, ten years ago united Canada, the U.S. and Mexico in a continental trading block. Opponents of NAFTA focused attention on labor and environmental concerns, but in the end these areas were relegated to weak side agreements with no mechanism for enforcement. But, one important provision, known as Chapter 11, escaped the notice of many critics.
Chapter 11 gives corporations unprecedented power over governments because it spells out the terms under which investors -- that is, multinational corporations -- must be compensated for losses incurred by expropriation through government action. But the wording is so broad that it's been interpreted to mean corporations will be compensated for loss of profit for any reason, including the enforcement of health and safety regulations.
Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Dan Seligman, director of the Sierra Club's Trade Program. He discusses the impact Chapter 11 has already had on trade among NAFTA partners and the danger of a Chapter 11-type provision being included in the much larger Free Trade Area of the Americas -- a hemispheric-wide treaty now being negotiated(A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found at www.btlonline.org).
For more information, call the Sierra Club at (202) 675-2387 or visit the group's Web site at www.sierraclub.org/trade
www.wpkn.org/wpkn/news/btl032202.html
betweenthelines-AT-snet.net
c 2002 Between the Lines C/O WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, Connecticut USA.
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