Tinkering won't make NAFTA a democratic deal
Surgery - not a band-aid - is needed to fix what's wrong with NAFTA's Chapter 11

(OTTAWA) Cosmetic reforms will do nothing to correct the problems that NAFTA's Chapter 11 has created by granting corporations the right to sue governments, said two organizations critical of the trade deal.

The Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) were reacting to yesterday's public statements by trade officials from the three NAFTA countries in which some modest reforms to the secretive enforcement machinery of NAFTA's investment rules were announced.

"We believe the very concept of granting rights to foreign investors that are above everyone else's in society is fundamentally at odds with our constitutional guarantee of equality before and under the law," said Steven Shrybman, an international trade lawyer with Sack, Goldblatt, Mitchell, who is representing The Council and CUPW.

Even on the critical issue of secrecy the NAFTA trade officials have not given any meaningful ground - they have agreed only to release tribunal decisions after they have been made. The overall process would remain just as secretive as it's always been.

"In fact, all three governments have recently argued against allowing those affected by NAFTA claims to know the nature of these claims, even when it will have a direct impact on their rights," said Dale Clark, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). "It sounds to us like the process is as anti-democratic as it has always been."

"Citizens are fighting to intervene in NAFTA disputes, and we're being shut out," said David Robbins, Trade Campaigner with The Council. "Releasing documents after a decision has been made is hardly progress."

CUPW and The Council of Canadians have petitioned for standing in the $250 million NAFTA claim made against Canada by US-based United Parcel Services (UPS). Because the claim directly puts universal postal service at risk, and directly threatens the jobs and pensions of postal workers, CUPW and The Council are arguing for the right to be represented in the proceedings. But all three NAFTA parties are arguing to exclude them from the process and have denied the groups' repeated requests for access to the UPS's statement of claim.

CUPW and the Council have also launched a constitutional challenge against NAFTA's Chapter 11, arguing that it violates Canadian constitutional guarantees of judicial independence and of the equality rights and fundamental justice guarantees of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.