TransCanada said it then filed its formal arbitration request under North American Free Trade Agreement provisions, seeking to recover what it says are costs and damages. The Keystone XL was designed to link existing pipeline networks in Canada and the United States to bring crude from Alberta and North Dakota to refineries in Illinois and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico coast. Obama rejected the cross-border crude oil pipeline last November, seven years after it was first proposed, saying it would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the U.S. economy. TransCanada is suing the United States in federal court in a separate legal action, seeking to reverse the pipeline's rejection. NAFTA, whose arbitration provisions allow companies to challenge governments before international panels, has been a target of recent anti-free-trade sentiments in the United States.