----- Original Message ----- From: "michael perelman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 7:53 PM Subject: [PEN-L:26165] Re: TPA and the new protectionism
> So, the democrats will give it to Georgie. One question. May Nathan knows. Does the Kerry ammendment > mean that anybody (including US corps) can push such suits or that nobody can? If the former, it is a > step backward. > > -- ================== It simply shifts the burden of proof: "Under the Kerry Amendment, a foreign investor would be required to demonstrate that the policy in question was enacted primarily with discriminatory intent against foreign investors or investments....The Kerry Amendment is based on U.S. Supreme Court rulings on expropriation in that it would guarantee that future trade agreements improve upon the NAFTA model and restrict such investment protection actions to only those cases where government action causes a physical invasion of property or the denial of all economic or productive use of that property." http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1112 It doesn't knock out the right of corps. to sue National and sub-National governments. I spoke to a fellow trade 'activist' who works very closely with one of our state legislators. The legislator relayed to my friend that her conversations with Maria Cantwell's legislative aides were rebuffed with "we're beyond the Constitution now." Ian
