With Democratic leaders Reed and Pelosi taking positions of opposition to fast track secret negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership tread deal, the Obama administration is facing major obstacles to the path that they have been determined to pursue. It is now also clear that the governments of several other countries involved in the negotiations are encountering similar political problems.
TPP LEGISLATORS FOR TRANSPARENCY
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED LEGISLATORS FROM COUNTRIES INVOLVED IN THE NEGOTIATION OF THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT, CALL ON THE PARTIES TO THE NEGOTIATION TO PUBLISH THE DRAFT TEXT OF THE AGREEMENT BEFORE ANY FINAL AGREEMENT IS SIGNED WITH SUFFICIENT TIME TO ENABLE EFFECTIVE LEGISLATIVE SCRUTINY AND PUBLIC DEBATE.
There are a large number of signatories from Malasia and Peru. There are very few from Canada, Mexico and Australia. There are seven from New Zealand. The response of the government trade minister there offers a clear picture of the attitude of the people trying to push this through to the institutions of Democratic government.
Calls for TPP transparency are code for destroying it, says Groser
Campaigners against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations want the negotiating texts made public to help ensure the process fails, says Trade Minister Tim Groser.
"Those people who are opposed to the agreement want access to the texts so they can blow it apart," he said in an interview with BusinessDesk ahead of a speech today to the ABAC Business Leaders meeting in Auckland where he rejected analysis challenging the claimed benefits of a TPP trade deal.
"So the idea that doing all this in the glare of publicity would help the process is naïve, except that my view is that ... actually these people (TPP opponents) are smart," said Groser. "They want this to be done in the full glare of transparency to increase the controversy to the point where it's unmanageable and will destroy the agreement.
This really sounds like something from a few centuries ago. The rabble has no business interfering in the conduct of public affairs. Important affairs are the proper business of their betters.
Meanwhile in the US the office of the US Trade Representative is in top secret overdrive.
USTR Finally Realizing Its All Encompassing Secrecy May Be A Problem, Calls Frantic Meeting For All 'Cleared' Lobbyists
Given that, it appears that the USTR is in panic mode, and has frantically called an all day meeting for all "cleared advisors" (i.e., the corporate representatives who actually do get to see the document) concerning the whole transparency issue.
In an apparent effort to defuse mounting criticism that the Obama administration is being too secretive about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on short notice has called an all-day briefing for all cleared advisers on Feb. 11, according to sources familiar with a memo sent by USTR announcing the meeting.
All of this brings to mind the first of Woodrow Wilson's famous 14 Points.
Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
It would appear that is a principle by which the US government is no longer adhering to.