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Do foreign investors have too much power?

A photo of Lori Wallach

Lori Wallach

Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, Lawyer

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About the video: ‘Do foreign investors have too much power?’

Lori Wallach explains how existing WTO agreements empower corporations at the expense of national governments, but are not absolute in their demands – requiring government approval for the foreign entities seeking to invest inside their borders. NAFTA and now CAFTA (approved shortly after this clip was recorded) go further and establish absolute rights for foreign investors, in many instances over-riding national laws. Where financial compensation arises, it is often at the expense of the local tax-payer.

Total views: 1,932

Filmed: Washington DC, USA on 13 April 2005

Credits: Interviewer - Marcus Morrell Camera and Editor - Marcus Morrell

Copyright © 2005 Big Picture TV

About Lori Wallach

Lori Wallach is one of the best known and most vocal critics of many of the trade agreements associated with corporate globalization. She is the Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, a non-profit organization founded in 1995 to promote government and corporate accountability in the globalization and trade arena. By profession a trade lawyer, she has written a number of books and articles on trade and her comments have been widely broadcast on CNN, ABC, CNBC and CSPAN.

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