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Moyers: Corporate Lawbreakers Winning Millions Under NAFTA
When a Mississippi jury found a Canadian-based conglomerate guilty of fraud for trying to put a family-owned funeral home out of business, the Canadian company filed a claim against the United States for $725 million.
When California banned a gasoline additive that poisoned the state’s drinking water, another Canadian firm sued the United States for a billion dollars in potential lost profits.
And in Mexico, when a town council stopped the American company Metalclad from reopening a toxic waste dump, the firm won $16 million in compensation.
Each corporation used a little-known provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement when laws protecting people’s welfare stood in the way of profit.
The stories are being told this month on PBS in the Bill Moyers special “Trading Democracy.” The hour-long show premieres Feb. 5 at 10 p.m. in most markets. Viewers should check local listings.
“When NAFTA became the law of the land, the debate we heard was about jobs,” Moyers said. “One provision was too obscure to stir up controversy. It was called Chapter Eleven and it was supposedly written to protect investors from having their property seized by foreign governments. But since NAFTA was ratified, corporations have used Chapter Eleven to challenge the powers of government to protect its citizens, to undermine environmental and health laws, even to attack our system of justice.”
The same provision is included in the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, which expands the three-country NAFTA agreement to 31 more countries in the Western Hemisphere — all but Cuba.
The Bush administration is pushing for FTAA and will have the power to make it a reality if fast track trading authority, now in the hands of the U.S. Senate, becomes law.
“We have lost more than a million American jobs as a direct result of NAFTA and we stand to lose many, many more because of FTAA,” CWA President Morton Bahr said. “As if that weren’t tragic enough, FTAA will let wealthy, ruthless corporations make the rules. Countries that that don’t play ball will face millions in claims.”
Interviewed on the show, Canadian journalist William Greider said, “Governments are already being intimidated by the mere threat of a claim being filed against some regulatory action. If you’re a civil servant, or even a political leader, you’ve got to think twice when a corporate lawyer comes to you and says, ‘We’re going to hit you for half a billion dollars if you do this.’”
The case of the Canadian company, Methanex, the world’s largest producer of the key ingredient in the gasoline additive MTBE, is pending before a NAFTA tribunal. MTBE, found to cause cancer, began turning up in California wells in 1995 and had contaminated 30 public water systems by 1999. When the state ordered the additive to be phased out, Methanex sued under Chapter Eleven, seeking $970 million for loss of market share and future profits.
People affected by the contamination will have no role in the tribunal proceedings, which are closed to the public. Yet it is the taxpayers “who will foot the bill if the tribunal decides in of favor the Canadian company,” Moyers said.
Supporters of fast track, NAFTA and FTAA say such pacts promote democracy around the world. Examining the impact of Chapter Eleven alone, Moyers asks, “Are we promoting democracy — as we claim — or trading it away?”
When California banned a gasoline additive that poisoned the state’s drinking water, another Canadian firm sued the United States for a billion dollars in potential lost profits.
And in Mexico, when a town council stopped the American company Metalclad from reopening a toxic waste dump, the firm won $16 million in compensation.
Each corporation used a little-known provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement when laws protecting people’s welfare stood in the way of profit.
The stories are being told this month on PBS in the Bill Moyers special “Trading Democracy.” The hour-long show premieres Feb. 5 at 10 p.m. in most markets. Viewers should check local listings.
“When NAFTA became the law of the land, the debate we heard was about jobs,” Moyers said. “One provision was too obscure to stir up controversy. It was called Chapter Eleven and it was supposedly written to protect investors from having their property seized by foreign governments. But since NAFTA was ratified, corporations have used Chapter Eleven to challenge the powers of government to protect its citizens, to undermine environmental and health laws, even to attack our system of justice.”
The same provision is included in the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, which expands the three-country NAFTA agreement to 31 more countries in the Western Hemisphere — all but Cuba.
The Bush administration is pushing for FTAA and will have the power to make it a reality if fast track trading authority, now in the hands of the U.S. Senate, becomes law.
“We have lost more than a million American jobs as a direct result of NAFTA and we stand to lose many, many more because of FTAA,” CWA President Morton Bahr said. “As if that weren’t tragic enough, FTAA will let wealthy, ruthless corporations make the rules. Countries that that don’t play ball will face millions in claims.”
Interviewed on the show, Canadian journalist William Greider said, “Governments are already being intimidated by the mere threat of a claim being filed against some regulatory action. If you’re a civil servant, or even a political leader, you’ve got to think twice when a corporate lawyer comes to you and says, ‘We’re going to hit you for half a billion dollars if you do this.’”
The case of the Canadian company, Methanex, the world’s largest producer of the key ingredient in the gasoline additive MTBE, is pending before a NAFTA tribunal. MTBE, found to cause cancer, began turning up in California wells in 1995 and had contaminated 30 public water systems by 1999. When the state ordered the additive to be phased out, Methanex sued under Chapter Eleven, seeking $970 million for loss of market share and future profits.
People affected by the contamination will have no role in the tribunal proceedings, which are closed to the public. Yet it is the taxpayers “who will foot the bill if the tribunal decides in of favor the Canadian company,” Moyers said.
Supporters of fast track, NAFTA and FTAA say such pacts promote democracy around the world. Examining the impact of Chapter Eleven alone, Moyers asks, “Are we promoting democracy — as we claim — or trading it away?”