/* Written 9:46 PM  Aug 31, 1998 by ay903@extra.lafn.org in talk.environment */
/* ---------- "ENVIRO: CANADA SLAPPED WITH ANOTHER SUIT" ---------- */

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:		For More Information Contact:
August 24, 1998			Michelle Sforza 202-546-4996 or
				The Council of Canadians 613-233-2773

Canada slapped with NAFTA lawsuit against another environmental law

Canada revoked PCB Ban to Avoid NAFTA Challenge

Producer now demands compensation for lost profits while law was in effect

 Notice Comes one week after Canada pays U.S. chemical company $10 million, 
revokes other NAFTA-challenged green law

Canada was slapped with another NAFTA challenge just a week after the 
country paid $10 million to the US-based Ethyl Corporation and revoked a 
public health law to avoid a potentially costly ruling under the same NAFTA 
provision. The new lawsuit, using a NAFTA provision that allows companies to 
directly sue governments, was initiated by Ohio based company S.D. Myers 
Inc. Canada banned the export of PCB-contaminated waste in 1995, but revoked 
the ban in early 1997 after U.S. firms announced they would challenge the 
law under NAFTA.  Myers, a PCB treatment company, demands an undisclosed sum 
for profits lost during the 15-month period of the ban.

"Myers used NAFTA to complain about Canada's PCB export ban, so the ban was 
lifted. Now they are using NAFTA to demand payment for lost profits from 
when the law was in effect. NAFTA empowers a company to force our government 
to have to pay for trying to protect the environment," said Maude Barlow, 
volunteer national chairperson with the Council of Canadians. "With the 
challenge occuring in a secret tribunal, Canadians aren't even allowed to 
know what's happening. It's undemocratic and simply outrageous and Canadians 
can look forward to much more of the same under NAFTA," adds Barlow. Under 
NAFTA rules, Myers' complaint and any proceedings, including negotiations 
with the Canadian government, are kept confidential.

Myers is using a NAFTA provision on which the controversial Multilateral 
Agreement on Investment (MAI) is based. The MAI, a proposal to establish 
far-reaching rights for multinational corporations, is under negotiation at 
the OECD, where talks are scheduled to resume in October. The provision 
empowers corporations to directly sue governments in NAFTA tribunals for 
cash damages for any government action "tantamount to" an indirect 
expropriation or "taking." Sometimes called "regulatory takings," this 
provision allows Myers to claim its missed opportunity to profit during the 
ban constitutes an illegal seizure of its assets.

Says Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, "NAFTA's 
critics warned that NAFTA would have a chilling effect on public interest 
safeguards. This case proves that corporations will use NAFTA to attack 
public health and environmental laws. NAFTA's "takings" provision goes 
further than the property rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, with 
devastating effects on public health and the environment."

Myers' use of NAFTA to attack Canada's policy reverses the international 
trend towards minimizing trade in hazardous waste. The U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) imposed a total ban on PCB imports in July 1997. 
"Under U.S. law, Myers can not import PCBs from Canada. This suit is about 
extorting money from the Canadian government during the few months the U.S. 
allowed PCBs to be imported," says Wallach.

"Chalk this case up to another NAFTA broken promise. Ethyl's and now Myers' 
lawsuit show that trade agreements will be used to subvert environmental 
goals; an occurrence that the U.S. government repeatedly denied would happen 
under NAFTA. Yet rather than slowing down and reassessing its trade policy, 
the Administration is negotiating agreements that would apply these same 
anti-regulatory rules worldwide," Wallach says.

In addition to the MAI, the Clinton Administration is negotiating the Free 
Trade area of the Americas (FTAA), a hemispheric trade pact, which will 
include an investment chapter modeled on NAFTA's. Negotiations on the 
investment rules for the FTAA are set to begin in September.

-30-

Margrete Strand Rangnes
MAI Project Coordinator
Public Citizen Global Trade Watch
215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
Washington DC, 20003
mstrand@citizen.org
202-546 4996, ext. 306
202-547 7392 (fax)

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