Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch notes:
If the [Korea-U.S. FTA] were to go into effect, at least 79 Korea-based corporations with 270 establishments across the United States would obtain new rights to demand taxpayer compensation through challenges of U.S. federal, and state laws in foreign tribunals.
They provide a nice Google map (follow the link to see), with locations and contact details for each of these companies:
Above is a map of the U.S. locations of multinational corporations that would gain new rights to sue the U.S. government under the Korea FTA. These corporations could challenge the local zoning and environmental laws of your community, so zoom in using the "+" button to to see which corporations are in your city. Click on the dots to see the names of the corporations and their industry. Blue markers are corporations based in Korea and red markers are corporations based in third countries that have operations in both countries. The red lines on the map are the borders of the districts of the U.S. House of Representatives. Click here for a full list of companies based in Korea that operate in the United States.
They have a similar map for companies in Korea.
They explain that "the maps are a wonderful tool to explore which corporations could challenge laws in your community whether you're in the
I take it their point is that there is a great threat that these companies will bring lawsuits that threaten U.S. laws, and thus concerned citizens who live near these companies should contact their representatives to lobby against approval of the FTA.
At the same time, it also occurs to me that this is a great tool for investment lawyers to locate potential clients!
That's probably not what Global Trade Watch had in mind, of course. Or is it? Could it be a clever plan to bring about controversial cases, which they can then use as the basis to argue against the investor-state dispute system? Hmm.
