Keystone commentary:"With veto it's time for the NAFTA option"
Sure hope not:
With veto, it’s time for the NAFTA option
TODD WEILER
Contributed to The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Mar. 02 2015, 3:00 AM EST
Todd Weiler is an independent barrister who specializes ?in investment treaty arbitration.
Over the past couple of months, U.S. President Barack Obama has made it abundantly clear that he is not a fan of the Keystone XL pipeline. It’s probably not personal. If he has to disappoint somebody, he would apparently prefer that it be Canadians, rather than any of the Democratic Party’s most generous campaign donors, such as billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer.
~Snip~
Is this all just bitter Canadian bluster? The U.S. government apparently doesn’t think so. In 2012, the administration transferred a State Department lawyer from the Office of the Legal Adviser, where he had been defending the government against claims under the North American free trade agreement for more than three years, to the unit responsible for the Keystone XL application, the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
Under NAFTA, the U.S. government is not allowed to treat Canadian investors less favourably than its own investors or investors from another country. Washington has approved numerous pipeline projects over the years, many of which involved circumstances similar to those of Keystone XL. It typically takes 500 to 600 days to obtain project approval. Keystone XL will have passed the 2,500-day mark before year’s end. Filing a NAFTA claim permits TransCanada to force the government to either provide a cogent explanation for this manifest difference in treatment to an independent, impartial tribunal, or pay compensation for the harm it has caused.
NAFTA also requires the U.S. government to provide Canadian investors with “fair and equitable treatment,” which includes a prohibition against exercising legitimate regulatory authority for an improper purpose. For example, a government official cannot use her authority to reject or approve a pipeline proposal to curry favour with campaign donors. Pipeline construction and maintenance is governed by comprehensive standards with which an applicant like TransCanada must comply. Under NAFTA, TransCanada is entitled to have its application judged on its merits, based on those standards – rather than on the basis of partisan political exigency...
Full editorial:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/time-for-keystones-nafta-option/article23232598/
So are you
"Ready for TPP"?
= new reply since forum marked as read
