My first question goes to Mr. Trew, from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
You are delighted with the disappearance of chapter 11, on the settlement of disputes between investors and states, which was fundamentally designed to ensure stability for investors at a time when different places had less stable governments. Basically, it was seen to threaten the ability to adopt social measures dealing with the environment and public health. It was realized that there were quite strong adverse effects, and Canada was the champion in terms of the number of claims against it. In those cases, the multinational is always the complainant and the state is always the defendant. These treaties have no recourse the other way around to protect citizens harmed by a multinational. This chapter in NAFTA was a first, but the measure has been imitated in basically all subsequent agreements.
Do you believe that the disappearance of the chapter foreshadows anything good as things proceed? As of now, we cannot consider that it is a given when future agreements are signed.