Furthermore, risk assessments will be required to include cost-benefit analyses. Merely protecting human health or other values will not be sufficient justification to establish the validity of a regulation. One will need to show that the economic advantages outweigh the economic disadvantages of a regulation. This principle is already embodied in U.S. pesticide law, widely criticized as among the weakest of U.S. environmental regulations. The public has no direct way to affect free trade negotiations or disputes.
Negotiations take place behind closed doors.
Meetings are not announced. No written record of negotiations is released. Even the decisions of GATT panels, which are convened to settle disputes, are secret. However, representatives of multinational corporations are routinely invited to serve as advisors. Companies like Dow Chemical, Scott Paper, Weyerhauser, Amoco, Mobil, and General Motors, are invited to help decide the U.S. position.