(Ottawa) The latest ruling from a NAFTA tribunal set up to evaluate claims by S. D. Myers against the Canadian government have far reaching implications for Canadian policy and the interpretation of trade rules say the Canadian Alliance for Trade and the Environment.

In a written submission to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Alliance says that the ruling seriously compromises Canada’s international obligations and domestic law on hazardous waste treatment, and should be reviewed by the courts. "Canada will be fined up to $50 million U.S. for honoring commitments that we have under the Basel Convention," said Elizabeth May, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada. "The Basel Convention was explicitly negotiated between 130 countries to restrict the cross-border trade and traffic in hazardous waste."

The SD Myers Chapter 11 claim is the first ruling where national obligations under a multilateral environmental agreement have been disregarded in favor of trade rules. "This is a disaster for environmental policy," said Steven Shrybman, counsel for the Alliance. "Canada is being punished for not facilitating trade in hazardous waste to the United States at a time when it was, in any event, illegal to import PCBs into the United States."

"Investor-state disputes have been disastrous for Canada and Canadian domestic policy," said Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. "We are now routinely seeing the roll-back of Canadian domestic regulations to protect health and the environment in these panel rulings." International Trade Minister, Pierre Pettigrew has announced that Canada will not seek investor state provisions in new trade deals, like the impending FTAA largely because of the damage that has been done to Canadian domestic policy as a result of these secret tribunals.

"The Minister’s doubts about an investor-state provision in the FTAA shows that the government made a grave mistake in accepting NAFTA Chapter ll on investor-state disputes. However, there are many things the government can do, before renegotiating Chapter ll. One is to refuse recognition of jurisdiction when cases fall outside the scope of what Chapter ll intended - namely to protect investors from the arbitrary actions of autocratic governments. The other is to appeal blatantly wrong decisions, as in the case of SD Myers," said David Bennett of the Canadian Labour Congress.

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