Investor Rights and Wrongs: Suffering from "calligroeconomania"
The worst kept secret about Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement is that no one, apart from a handful of entrepreneurial lawyers, had an inkling of its value.
By giving rights and legal protections to investors operating across borders, the conventional wisdom was that Chapter 11 would shield Canadian and U.S. firms from arbitrary treatment at the hands of the Mexican government.
This commentary originally appeared in the Toronto Star on June 6, 2002.
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