Corporate empowerment at the expense of a sustainable planet was a main theme for protestors on the occasion of the 69th General Assembly of the United Nations held over the last week in New York City. An article in The Huffington Post presents several cases in the Dominican Republic where big business is using the DR-CAFTA to sue when they do not get their way, despite major environmental concerns.
The item comments that provisions called “investor state dispute settlements” have been included in free trade pacts. They empower corporations to sue governments over nearly any policy that a corporation claims would reduce its expected future profits.
As reported, the Dominican Republic, for example, faces two new corporate challenges to its environmental policies.
Corona, a Florida-based construction materials company (not to be confused with the beer), has announced a case against the Dominican Republic for US$100 million because the Dominican Republic denied Corona an environmental license to mine for construction materials after raising concerns about the proposed project’s risks to waterways.
It also mentions the case of three US investors that are threatening to sue the DR if it does not allow the extension of a resort that already includes luxury homes, a restaurant with a rotating floor and tennis courts – into a neighboring national park.
The blog feature by Courtenay Lewis, responsible for the Sierra Club trade program, says that the United States is pushing to expand these investor rights into new trade agreements under negotiation, including the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the US and the European Union.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtenay-lewis/new-cases-show-risks-of-c_b_5901024.html