[lbo-talk] TransCanada sues the US over Keystone

[Marv Gandall]

TransCanada Pipelines yesterday launched a $15 billion suit against the US government following the Obama administration’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline.  A successful claim by TransCanada under the arbitration provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement would be a first since none of the handful of corporations, all of them Canadian, who have previously challenged US trade rules have won their cases.

Below is the link to a useful interview on Democracy Now with Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. Wallach reviews how laws in the public interest are subject to subversion by foreign corporations under current free trade agreements which allow private investors to sue sovereign states. 

Wallach notes for her American audience how US environmental, health and safety, labour, financial and other regulations are currently vulnerable to challenge by some 9000 foreign corporations under 50 trade pacts, warning that they will soon be joined by another 9500 multinationals if the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement is passed by Congress.

True, but the global economy is still dominated by US multinationals, hedge funds, and other overseas investors who have the most to gain by opening up foreign markets, which is why American corporations, supported by Republican and Democratic administrations, have been at the forefront of the push for bilateral and multilateral trade agreements for more than a century. 

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/7/transcanada_sues_the_us_for_15b