NAFTA

Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 21:27:57 -0300
From: Carol Morrison <carol.morrison@ns.sympatico.ca>
Organization: consultant, emeritus DFO
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects


An Ohio-based PCB-processor, S.D. Myers Corp., is suing the Canadian
government because it has banned the export of PCBs, and this is
curtailing the profits that would potentially be made by the Myers Corp.
if this ban were not in place. The news report says that
environmentalists want the NAFTA environmental commission to suspend the
S.D. Myers case until the commission can examine the risks to the
environment that cases such as this will pose under the NAFTA investment
rules.

There has been a similar case decided under the NAFTA rules, involving
the Ethyl Corp., which makes the gasoline additive MMT. This was also
banned by the Canadian government. Ethyl Corp. sued the Canadian
government and won, and the govenment also lifted the ban on MMT.

Does the NAFTA environmental commission have the power to suspend cases
while it conducts studies? One would think that, if they did, this would
have been done during the Ethyl Corp. case. And if, as I fear may be the
case, they don't, what on earth do we do now?

Very very worried,
Kathleen Morrison

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects