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    Environmental campaigners in Brazil denounce pesticide use

    Repairing the Harmful Legacy of Corporate-Dominated Trade in the Americas

    As a former ISDS defense attorney, I represented Latin American governments against corporations and witnessed firsthand the devastating impacts of this mechanism on local communities, economies, and environments.

    Iza Camarillo
    Jul 31, 2024

    For decades, U.S. trade policy across Latin America has prioritized the profit of U.S. mega-corporations over the well-being of communities, workers, democracy, and human rights. Now, as trade ministers from the U.S. and eleven countries in our hemisphere convene at the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP) Ministerial in Quito this week, they have an opportunity to address one of the worst manifestations of this shameful legacy.

    Embedded within trade and investment agreements between the U.S. and many countries in Latin America is a relic of colonialism that empowers multinational corporations to challenge any public interest law and policy that may interfere with their profits in extrajudicial, closed-door arbitration tribunals. This insidious system is called Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and it effectively erodes democracy while fleecing governments of taxpayer dollars and diverting public funds. Yet the secretive nature of the ISDS system ensures the public remains largely unaware.

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    Opinion
    trade
    A tar sands site in Alberta, Canada

    Sensing Keystone XL Rejection, TransCanada Scopes NAFTA Lawsuit

    Provisions in trade pact may provide legal basis for suing U.S. over tar sands pipeline

    Nadia Prupis
    Aug 10, 2015

    TransCanada Corporation, the company behind the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, is furtively planning its next steps--including suing the U.S. government--if U.S. President Barack Obama rejects the permits which would allow construction of the project to move forward, the Canadian Press reported on Monday.

    While the company has publicly maintained hope that Obama will permit it to build the pipeline, those close to the project say TransCanada expects rejection and is quietly considering suing the government under the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), using articles in the pact that protect companies from discrimination, unfair or arbitrary treatment, and expropriation.

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    keystone xl pipeline
    STOP TPP

    Why the TPP is Worse than Mystery Meat

    Paul Rogat Loeb
    Jun 20, 2015

    Remember the World Trade Organization, which slipped into the shadows after massive Seattle protests in 1999? The same day last week that Congress initially blocked the possibility of fast track approval for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the House voted to overturn rules requiring country-of-origin labeling for meat. Those supporting the vote said they were responding to a World Trade Organization ruling, judging US country-of-origin labeling unfair competition with meat coming from foreign countries like Canada and Mexico, and therefore a violation. They said they had no choice for fear of triggering sanctions or lawsuits from countries exporting meat across our borders.

    I don't know about you, but I like knowing whether my meat comes from Iowa or Uzbekistan, Montana or Mexico, Kentucky or Kenya. So do 93% of Americans, according to a Consumer's Union survey. People like supporting US farmers, cutting down the distance traveled, knowing there will be at least minimal inspection standards, even if the delights of E. coli occasionally slip through. It seems commonsensical that we'd want at least the chance to become informed consumers, whether with the origins of our meat, GMO-derived crops, or the amount of sugar and calories in our baked goods.

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