North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations should keep investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions or risk undermining business support, three major business groups said.The Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent the August 23 letter against the backdrop of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) discussing a mechanism that would allow NAFTA countries to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of the ISDS system.The ISDS proposal is in the concept stage and the U.S. did not offer any language on ISDS at the August 16-20 inaugural NAFTA round, a business community source told Bloomberg BNA on background August 24. "This is a moving target," a source said, speculating that the U.S. would not be offering investment language at the next NAFTA round starting Sept. 1."Attempts to eliminate or weaken ISDS will harm American businesses and workers and, as a consequence, will serve to undermine business community support for the NAFTA modernization negotiations," the business groups wrote in a letter to top administration officials, including USTR Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.Under ISDS, companies can bring governments before arbitration panels and get damage awards if the arbitrators find that the government breached investment guarantees. ISDS provisions are contained in NAFTA Chapter 11.
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