Public Citizen: Investment updates in trade deals would be ‘important progress’

U.S. talks with Canada, Mexico and Colombia to update investment agreements and address “abuses” of the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism would mark “important progress,” an advocacy group argued on Monday, dismissing as a “tantrum” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s contention that the agency has been operating in secret. The Chamber last week alleged that USTR was “ secretly renegotiating ” the investment protections in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement via side letters and sent two requests...