Chuck Grassley: “the amendment that is before us was introduced by Senator Baucus and myself and is designed to make it crystal clear…”

“the amendment that is before us was introduced by Senator Baucus and myself and is designed to make it crystal clear that in pursuing these objectives, foreign investors are not to be granted any greater rights in the United States than our own U.S. investors have rights within the United States. This provision builds upon the already strong improvements to the investment objectives within this bill. These provisions strike a very careful balance between the needs to protect U.S. citizens from arbitrary takings of their property overseas and the need to ensure that the investor-State dispute settlement process is not abused. Critics of the investment provisions insist that the investor-State dispute settlement process has somehow run amok. Not true. The fact is that no U.S. environmental, health, or safety regulations have ever been overturned by the international investment arbitration. Only 13 investor-State claims have been filed under NAFTA chapter 11 in the entire 8 years of its existence. Meanwhile, U.S. investors continue to face discriminatory and arbitrary government action in most of the developing world. We need to maintain U.S. investors' ability to get redress in impartial tribunals while ensuring that the investor-State dispute settlement process continues to protect our own investors overseas. This simply is what the Baucus-Grassley amendment does. I urge support for this amendment and support for the Baucus-Grassley compromise.”