U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Wednesday led nearly three dozen progressive members of Congress in demanding an end to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system, a key feature of corporate-managed trade agreements signed, and often initiated, by the United States.
“Large corporations have weaponized, and continue to weaponize, this faulty and undemocratic dispute settlement regime to benefit their own interests at the expense of workers, consumers, and small businesses globally,” says Warren (D-Mass.) and Doggett’s (D-Texas) letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
After praising President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge to exclude ISDS from future trade deals—such as the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework the White House has been negotiating—along with Tai’s indication that she “will pursue a trade agenda in line with that commitment,” the letter asks Tai’s office and Blinken’s department to “investigate any and all options at your disposal to eliminate ISDS liability from existing trade and investment agreements.”
ISDS mechanisms enable multinational corporations to sue the governments of foreign trading partners for profits they claim have been forfeited as a result of domestic policies designed to protect workers, consumers, and ecosystems. Such lawsuits challenge meaningful labor, product safety, and environmental standards, and the mere threat of them can
— source commondreams.org | Kenny Stancil | May 03, 2023