You may heard of the strange story of MTBE in California. The state banned the carcinogenic gasoline additive because it was contaminating groundwater. California was sued by the Methanex Corp. which makes MTBE, stating that California violated Chapter 11 of NAFTA, which requires that any expropriation or anything tantamount to expropriation has to be compensated. There is a similar rule governing investor-state relations in the WTO regulations.

I propose meeting with heads of the cocaine cartels in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil to form OCEC, the Organization of Cocaine Exporting Countries. OCEC will file a complaint with the WTO, stating that the US ban on imports of cocaine is a boycott, which is an illegal restriction of free trade under WTO rules. The WTO would have to rule that the US must drop its restrictions on cocaine imports into the US or pay trillions of dollars to OCEC. This amount represents the profits lost due to the illegal ban on cocaine imports. Any DEA seizures of cocaine imports is a form of expropriation as well and must be compensated. The Organization of Heroin Exporting Countries (OHEC) comprised of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and Afghanistan, would follow suit.
-- mystic2311, Dec 04 2003

OCEC http://www.brokenne...rldnews/newcoke.asp
[mystic2311, Oct 04 2004]

What I was talking about. http://www.smh.com..../1067103267228.html
[Detly, Oct 04 2004]

Self-baked (sort of)...see link
-- mystic2311, Dec 04 2003


An American company did exactly the same thing in Canada. If I can be bothered, I'll unearth details.
-- Detly, Dec 04 2003


detly, IIANM, you may be thinking of Methanex, which is a Canadian company. CMIIAW.
-- mystic2311, Dec 05 2003


Unabubba, which product is Al Qaeda importing into the US? As far as I know, their only commercial venture is collaborating with the Jewish Mafia in diamond smuggling. Unless you are suggesting that terrorism is a commodity, which leads us back to the concept of terrorism futures. The Pentagon was probably running their little terrorism futures market before 9-11, which would explain all those put options on American and United.
-- mystic2311, Dec 05 2003


This idea seems somehow Wilsonian.
-- LoriZ, Dec 05 2003


In that case, every terrorist organization should be alloted a certain amount of terrorism credits (say one major or 3 minor attacks) every year. If they don't use their terrorism credits, they can trade them on the Pentagon's Terrorism Exchange. This will help reduce the overall level of global terrorism. After all, terrorism is a side effect of imperialism.
-- mystic2311, Dec 05 2003


LoriZ, which Wilson? Robert Anton Wilson?
-- mystic2311, Dec 05 2003


i like it. but would this cause the cost of cocaine to rise or fall? would the government start stockpiling it in case of a shortage?

would we later go to war for cocaine?
-- changokun, Dec 05 2003


The British went to war with China to enforce their opium trade, why not cocaine wars?
-- mystic2311, Dec 06 2003


detly, that article about free trade problems in Australia is purely hypothetical. The case I am talking about with Methanex actually happened and has been adjudicated by the secret WTO tribunal. The WTO actually ruled against Methanex, so they came back with a bizarre conspiracy theory that Grey (Alien) Davis conspired with ADM to replace MTBE with ethanol. Thus, Methanex contends, Davis' ban of MTBE was not motivated by public health concerns, but political corruption (ADM having deposited the requisite bags of money at Davis's doorstep).
-- mystic2311, Dec 08 2003


[mystic] - read it closely:

"US corporations are not afraid of using these new rights to protect their investments [...]. For example, in 1997, the Canadian Government imposed a ban on the import and interstate transport of MMT, a fuel additive containing manganese. The ban was imposed because of public health concerns. Ethyl Corporation, a US chemical company which produces MMT, sued the Canadian Government...."

Let's get it clear that I'm not arguing about free trade or whatever, I just recognised something in your post, and am being a pedant. :)
-- Detly, Dec 09 2003


I am a busy man...you expect me to read past the first paragraph of your article? :-)
-- mystic2311, Dec 19 2003


Genius. This shows something about how the world today is messed up, but I dunno what.
-- sninctown, May 26 2005


I'm pretty sure that legalizing cocaine would make it less expensive. The drug cartels would not like that.
-- discontinuuity, Sep 12 2005



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