Globalization means turning the clock back on reforms. Health and safety regulations can be judged as imposing an unfair burden on trade. Public services can be charged with depriving foreign corporations of market opportunities.10 To offer one instance: under NAFTA, the US-based Ethyl Corporation sued the Canadian government for $250 million in lost business opportunities and interference with trade because Canada banned MMT, an Ethyl Corporation–produced gasoline additive found to be carcinogenic by Canadian investigators. Fearing they would lose the case, Canadian officials reluctantly lifted the ban on MMT, paid Ethyl $10 million compensation, and issued a public statement calling MMT “safe,” even though they had scientific findings showing otherwise. California also banned the unhealthy additive; this time a Canadian-based Ethyl company sued California under NAFTA for placing an unfair burden on free trade.11
In another case the good guys won: United Parcel Service (UPS) charged the Canadian postal service for lost market opportunities, which means that under NAFTA, the Canadian government would have to compensate UPS for all the business that UPS thinks it would have procured had there been no public postal service in Canada. Just about all public services could be wiped out had the judgment gone as UPS wanted. The Canadian postal workers union challenged the case, arguing that the agreement violated the Canadian Constitution. The NAFTA tribunal decided on behalf of the Canadian postal service in a complicatedly argued decision. The positive effect of the decision was to free other Canadian public-service initiatives that were being held in abeyance out of fear of being charged with interfering with free trade.12 But potential difficulties in expanding or maintaining public services continue as long as free trade agreements rule the roost.