Fight ISDA - a NAFTA clause that allows corporations to sue governments that pass environmental or labor protection laws that hurt their profits

Ethyl's lawyers disputed the Canadian government's ban on the known neurotoxin MMA

The next round of NAFTA renegotiation talks are scheduled for October in Washington, D.C. and SumOfUs is showing up big time. With your help, we're demanding an end to the dangerous clause buried inside NAFTA that allows corporations to sue governments and be awarded unlimited sums in secretive tribunals of corporate lawyers.

That's right, because of some heavy corporate lobbying, the clause, known as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), allows corporate executives to dispute a country’s laws, like important environmental and labor protection laws, if it is deemed these policies will negatively impact the corporation's profits.
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In one ISDS jurisdiction, the Canadian government was forced to pay $13 million in damages and legal fees to a giant chemical manufacturing company known as Ethyl. In the lawsuit, Ethyl's lawyers disputed the Canadian government's ban on the known neurotoxin MMA, which is, by no coincidence, an Ethyl product. Ethyl lawyers bullied the government in the secretive ISDS tribunal to lift the ban on the company's product AND pay the corporation $13 million in damages and legal fees. This abuse of ISDS forced the Canadian government to prioritize corporate profits over public health and the environment.

This can't continue. Now more than ever it's important we stay vigilant to make sure that corporate interests don’t hijack these important renegotiations. Lobbyists and corporate executives are counting on the public to not pay attention so they can keep expanding their profit-centered ISDS clause and continue undermining important laws. Let’s show them that we're paying attention and we're not going anywhere.

- SumOfUs

NAFTA’s Legacy: Expanding Corporate Power to Attack Public Interests Laws, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, 1 February 2017
The Court That Rules The World, Buzzfeed, 28 August 2016
NAFTA's ISDS: Why Canada Is One of the Most Sued Countries in the World, CommonDreams, 23 October 2015.
Investor-State Attacks: Health, ISDS Corporate Attacks, September 2017