Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Earthjustice opens door to Methanex tribunal

[ .. one small step (in bold below) to more citizen involvement in was created in a suit arising from the ability of corporations to sue for claimed lost profit as a result of government public health law in California .. as Kevin Zeese .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Zeese , of your video, pointed out the corporations use provisions of 'not freedom related'/'free-trade marketing labeled only' trade agreements ..]

With the establishment of international investment agreements, national environmental laws are increasingly being threatened by these undemocratic procedures. The North American Free Trade Agreement contains provisions that give foreign investors unprecedented power to challenge national laws and to extract compensation from governments when environmental protection measures affect the value of a foreign investment. One of the most problematic aspects of these provisions is that they allow foreign investors to exercise their power over national governments in secret. Investors' challenges to national regulations are decided in confidential arbitration proceedings, meaning the public can have no role in deciding the fate of democratically enacted health and environmental measures.

In a precedent-setting case that has begun to define the role of these investment provisions and tribunals, a Canadian company sued the United States over California's decision to phase out the use of the toxic gasoline additive MTBE, which has been responsible for widespread contamination of groundwater. In this challenge, Methanex Corporation, the Canadian owner of a United States facility that manufactures a component of the additive, brought a one billion dollar NAFTA suit against the United States, demanding compensation for future profits that would be lost because of California's phase-out.

In October 2000, on behalf of environmental organizations that worked to establish the California phase-out of MTBE, Earthjustice sought permission to participate in Methanex's compensation claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Although international arbitration tribunals have never before permitted citizens to participate in these confidential processes -- a point Methanex's lawyers highlighted to the tribunal -- Earthjustice succeeded in convincing the tribunal that it had the authority to allow us to make written submissions in the case. We have thus taken a significant step in opening this highly secretive process to public scrutiny and participation.

http://earthjustice.org/features/earthjustice-opens-door-to-methanex-tribunal

.. it took some time (obviously weak googling acumen/style) to find Methanex failed in this case with a victory
to California and the right to make sovereign laws .. in this case it was in the interest of public health ..

Methanex Corp. v. United States of America

Methanex Corporation, a Canadian marketer and distributor of methanol, submitted a claim to arbitration under the UNCITRAL rules on its own behalf for alleged injuries resulting from a California ban on the use or sale in California of the gasoline additive MTBE. Methanol is an ingredient used to manufacture MTBE.

Methanex contended that a Califiornia [sloppy] Executive Order and the regulations banning MTBE expropriated parts of its investments in the United States in violation of Article 1110, denied it fair and equitable treatment in accordance with international law in violation of Article 1105, and denied it national treatment in violation of Article 1102. Methanex claimed damages of $970 million.

A hearing on jurisdiction and admissibility was held in July 2001. On August 7, 2002, the Tribunal issued a First Partial Award on issues of jurisdiction and admissibility. A hearing on the merits was held in June 2004.

On August 9, 2005, the Tribunal released the Final Award, dismissing all of the claims. The Tribunal also ordered Methanex to pay the United States' legal fees and arbitral expenses in the amount of approximately $ 4 million. The award and other documents appear on this page.

http://www.state.gov/s/l/c5818.htm

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NAFTA and WTO, when were they signed? .. ok ..

NAFTA .. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA; French: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA; Spanish: Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN) is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral rules-based trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Canada. In terms of combined purchasing power parity GDP of its members, as of 2007 the trade bloc is the largest in the world and second largest by nominal GDP comparison. .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement

WTO .. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization ..

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CHOICE .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice_%28Australian_consumer_organisation%29 .. is a consumer organization in Australia ..

CHOICE weighs in on TPP copyright debate

15 November 2013
By Graeme Philipson

Thousands of Australians could face new criminal penalties for illegally downloading content under the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

Just months after more than 100,000 Australians illegally downloaded the latest season of Breaking Bad, the Federal Government is considering an international trade agreement that could criminalise this activity.

Consumer group CHOICE has come out against the provision. “We are deeply concerned at a proposal from the US to expand criminal liability for copyright infringement.

“This would mean that domestic non-commercial infringement could become a criminal act,” says CHOICE CEO Alan Kirkland. “While CHOICE condemns copyright infringement, we certainly don’t agree that an individual downloading Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones for personal use should be open to criminal prosecution.”

CHOICE has also renewed its call for greater transparency on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement after leaked drafts showed that consumer rights could be undermined in the secretive trade agreement. A newly leaked draft, posted on Wikileaks, comes less than one month after CHOICE launched a public campaign for the TPP texts to be made available to the public.

“We have raised several concerns over the risks of poor outcomes for consumers as a result of the TPP negotiations, and those concerns are magnified today,” says Kirkland. “The US appears to be proposing a raft of measures that would be disastrous for Australian consumers if they made the final text. This includes a ban on parallel importation ..

[ A parallel import is a non-counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. Parallel imports are often referred to as grey product, and are implicated in issues of international trade, and intellectual property .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_import ]

which involves purchasing products from overseas retailers and shipping them to Australia.

“While we are pleased to see that Australian negotiators are opposing this, we continue to have concerns that the TPP could entrench other copyright provisions which contradict recommendations made by the IT Pricing Inquiry.”

The recent bipartisan Parliamentary report, At what cost? IT pricing and the Australia tax .. [ http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=ic/itpricing/report.htm ] , recommended that the government consider changes to copyright law to offer consumers greater protections when they circumvent online geoblocks, measures that prevent Australians from accessing certain international content online.

“But the leaked draft shows that Australia [is] seeking to lock-in copyright provisions that limit consumers’ ability to get around these virtual walls that sustain higher prices. CHOICE is also disappointed that Australian consumers have to rely on leaked texts to obtain information on the agreement.

“On behalf of our members and consumers more broadly, CHOICE wants to have input into this wide-reaching agreement. Ideally, this would be through open debate. We renew our call on the Australian government to move towards transparency by allowing consumers to see drafts of the TPP,” Kirkland says.

The lack of transparency in the TPP was highlighted last month when a number of journalists were dis-invited from a ‘public’ TPP briefing held by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Sydney. After a backlash, the Department changed its mind, allowing journalists to attend in a ‘private capacity’.

CHOICE has now released its own analysis of what the TPP could mean for consumers. Many provisions appear to go beyond even the draconian measures of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which was dramatically rejected last year by the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, pending a National Interest Analysis on several of its provisions.

CHOICE also continues to encourage Australians to sign its petition demanding greater transparency in the TPP negotiations.

[ 13234 Signatures so far, good, their 10000 aim has been topped ]

Graeme Philipson is senior associate editor at iTWire and editor of sister publication CommsWire. He is also founder and Research Director of Connection Research, a market research and analysis firm specialising in the convergence of sustainable, digital and environmental technologies. He has been in the high tech industry for more than 30 years, most of that time as a market researcher, analyst and journalist. He was founding editor of MIS magazine, and is a former editor of Computerworld Australia. He was a research director for Gartner Asia Pacific and research manager for the Yankee Group Australia. He was a long time IT columnist in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and is a recipient of the Kester Award for lifetime achievement in IT journalism.

http://www.itwire.com/it-policy-news/regulation/62287-choice-weighs-in-on-tpp-copyright-debate