Dow Suit is Seminal NAFTA Chapter 11 Test

Published April 15, 2009

Let's get one thing straight. The recently-launched NAFTA arbitration by Dow Chemicals against the Government of Canada is about much more than $2 million.

As was first reported in these pages last autumn, Dow claims that a Quebec ban on lawn pesticides has amounted to an unfair expropriation of Dow's Canadian pesticide business.

On March 31, the company filed for formal arbitration under...