AUGUSTA — Mainers concerned about the potential for international trade agreements trumping state and federal laws when it comes to regulating groundwater use and extraction testified at a public hearing before a state panel in Augusta on Thursday night.

Members of the Maine Citizen Trade Policy Commission heard resident concerns focused largely on the idea that local water rights challenged by claims from multinational corporations, such as Nestle Waters North America, which operates the Poland Spring water bottling company, would get settled in international tribunals, rather than domestic courts.

The commission is made up of state officials, small business owners, environmentalists, human rights advocates and other public-interest groups.

Water was described by many as a source for life to be protected rather than a commodity to be sold and regulated by international trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Foreign corporations are using provisions in trade agreements to circumvent, dismantle or prevent local policies that, while maybe in the best interest of the citizens, interfere with the company’s potential profits,” said Daphne Loring of the Maine Fair Trade Campaign in Lewiston.

Most of the testimony, from residents of towns including Shapleigh, Ogunquit and Wells, encouraged the panel to recommend the Legislature carve water rights out of international trade agreements and create a public trust to protect Maine’s water as a resource.

But Chris Jackson of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce said water extraction is a heavily regulated enterprise in Maine and if anything, the state should be encouraging investment from more international companies.

“Businesses are struggling; I can tell you we need a little more foreign investment in this state,” he said.

A successful company like Poland Spring, which profits from an abundant resource that replenishes itself, is the type of business that should be encouraged and not discouraged in Maine, Jackson said.

Chip Ahrens, representing Poland Spring, said he didn’t believe the state or any municipalities are in danger of being brought before a tribunal.

“According to the World Trade Organization, member nations bring suits against other member nations, not states or municipalities,” he said. “They can’t order rewrites of, or invalidate, state or federal laws.”

Another of the trade agreements brought up in testimony, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, is limited in its application, Ahrens said.

“Water before it is put in a bottle is not regulated by GATS,” he said.

Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, who serves as a chairwoman of the commission, said they will review the public testimony as well as research conducted by a Georgetown University professor and information from the state Attorney General’s Office.

“Once all of it is compiled, the commission will review and approve it, and the Water Resource Planning Committee will present that report to the Legislature’s Natural Resource Committee, which will report out legislation if they choose to do so,” she said.

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