Localizing Globalization.(state and provincial opposition to international trade agreements)

Can California and other states block plans to expand NAFTA?

IN 1999, AFTER A STUDY BY THE UNIVERSITY OF California at Davis warned that the chemical MTBE may cause cancer in humans, California became the first U.S. state to phase out its use as a gasoline additive. (MTBE from leaking underground storage tanks contaminates soil and groundwater.) But the Canadian corporation Methanex, which produces the MBTE ingredient methanol, viewed California's action as a confiscation of its property. So Methanex pursued a novel avenue of redress--one that leaps across three separate levels ...