Aug 8, 2017 110 Business Associations Letter to Trump Administration Urging Upgraded Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in Modernized North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Negotiations
Dear Ambassador Lighthizer, Secretaries Ross, Tillerson and Mnuchin and Director Cohn: As associations representing millions of small, medium and large companies across every major sector of the U.S. economy employing tens of millions of U.S. workers, we urge that robust market access commitments and investment protections, enforceable through investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), be maintained and upgraded in the negotiations to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The original NAFTA included basic access, protection and enforcement provisions that have helped grow manufacturing, services and agricultural industries by enabling our businesses to reach new consumers and to participate in foreign infrastructure, energy and resource development projects. The negotiations to modernize NAFTA provide an important opportunity to upgrade the agreement to improve protection and enforcement tools against the theft, discrimination and unfair treatment of U.S. property overseas.
