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Read the transcript
of Bill Moyers Reports: Trading Democracy, as aired 5 February
2002 on PBS
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Streaming Video Clips from Trading Democracy
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William Greider of The Nation
on the powers that Chapter Eleven gives to foreign corporations.
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California Senator Shiela Kuehl, Chair of
the legislature's International Trade Policy Committee, and Martin Wagner,
attorney for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund on MTBE and Methanex.
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Senator Shiela Kuehl, and William Greider
on the implications of the Methanex case.
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Edwin Williamson, legal counsel to
State Department when NAFTA was negotiated, on the Metalclad case in Mexico.
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Edwin Williamson and Charles "Chip" Roh, Deputy
Chief Negotiator of NAFTA, on NAFTA challenges to jury verdicts.
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DOCUMENTS FROM NAFTA'S SECRET TRIBUNALS
Compiled by Public Affairs Television and Washington Media Associates
for "Bill Moyers Reports" produced by Sherry Jones and broadcast 5 February
2002 on PBS
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 65
Edited by Thomas Blanton and Michael L. Evans
Posted 5 February 2002
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The PBS documentary Bill Moyers Reports: Trading Democracy,
which premieres tonight, February 5, at 10 p.m. Eastern time (local times
may vary) exposes an obscure provision of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) that has given multinational corporations the power to
demand compensation if a law of any one of the three NAFTA countries –
the United States, Mexico or Canada – threatens their potential profits.
Laws designed to protect the environment or public health, the decisions
of states or local communities - even jury verdicts - can prompt a corporation
to file a lawsuit. But instead of bringing claims through the court
system, these NAFTA Chapter 11 cases are heard by trade tribunals that
meet in secret, without public participation or oversight. And although
the rulings can mandate millions of tax dollars in compensatory payments,
NAFTA makes no provision for a full appeal to US courts – and sets no caps
on the amount of damages that can be awarded.
The National Security Archive is posting today on the Web internal documents
from the NAFTA secret tribunals that were obtained by the Moyers team,
led by producer Sherry Jones. The documents consist of legal briefs,
witness statements, and actual rulings from two of the three cases that
are explored in tonight’s broadcast. The cases examined in the documentary
include a pending $970 million claim filed by a Canadian company called
Methanex against the U.S., a successful claim
brought by the American company Metalclad against the Mexican
government in a dispute over a toxic waste dump (Mexico was compelled to
pay $16 million to Metalclad), and the first Chapter
11 case brought by a company dissatisfied with the verdict of an American
jury (Loewen v. U.S.). The Moyers team obtained the Loewen
documents through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Civil Division
of the U.S. Department of Justice, while the government of Mexico and the
Metalclad Corporation each voluntarily provided their respective filings.
The complete transcript of Trading
Democracy is also reproduced with permission of the program
producer: Public Affairs Television in association with Washington Media
Associates – together with five streaming
video excerpts (see sidebar) and today’s press
release describing the documentary.
| I. Partial document file for Metalclad v. Mexico |
| II. Document file from The Loewen Group, Inc. and Raymond L.
Loewen v. United States of America, ICSID Case No. ARB(AF)/98/3. [Source:
Freedom of Information Act request to the Civil Division, U.S. Department
of Justice] |
| THE CLAIM |
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Notice of Claim
(by Loewen & Loewen Group), 30 October 1998 (74 pages) |
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Memorial (by Loewen Group),
18 October 1999 (160 pages) |
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Memorial (by Ray Loewen), 18
October 1999 (72 pages) |
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