NAFTA legacy case dropped
CCPA | 12 December 2025
NAFTA legacy case dropped
This is an excerpt from the Trade and Investment Research Project bulletin from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has declined jurisdiction over a NAFTA legacy claim filed under CUSMA’s legacy annex by Access Business Group (Amway) against Mexico and ordered the claimant to pay $1.3M USD.
The case was filed after the Ministry of Agrarian Development granted parcels of land to the San Isidro community ejido in July 2022 in the state of Jalisco. Amway alleged that the land was acquired through its subsidiary, Nutrilite, in 1992 and 1994 and was not the state’s to give away. The firm’s NAFTA lawsuit sought nearly $3 billion USD in damages.
Like in the failed TC Energy legacy case against the United States, a majority on the ICSID tribunal held that the protections of NAFTA’s investment chapter had not been extended during the NAFTA-CUSMA transitional period, and that the 2022 state measures therefore fell outside the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
The decision will be a relief for the San Isidro community, who had been struggling against big agri-business encroachment on farming land and the displacement of traditional agricultural practices.
