Public Citizen Scrutinizes Environmental Impacts of NATA

Corporations are using a dispute resolution provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to circumvent environmental regulations in the US, Canada, and Mexico -- according to a report released the week of Sept. 17, 2001, by Public Citizen.

A similar provision has been proposed in an expansion of NAFTA, known as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). If approved, FTAA could apply to 31 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Under NAFTA, the process in question is called "investor-to-state" dispute resolution. It allows foreign investors to challenge the laws, policies, and judicial decisions of a federal, state, provincial, or local government in a legal process that is largely closed to public scrutiny. Of the 15 cases discovered by Public Citizen, foreign investors have won four, one was dismissed, and 10 are pending. Cases involve:

• A Canadian corporation challenging CA's phase-out of the gasoline additive MTBE
• A US corporation challenging Canadian regulation of the gasoline additive MMT
• A US corporation challenging a Mexican city's permitting process for a toxic waste facility