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Why Did the TPP Need To Be Secret?

Posted on 3rd November 2015

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This story, in Grist, got me thinking. It is about the TPP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership), which Europe will not be a part of - not to be confused with the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), which will include Europe.

The main thrust of the report, which is clear in its title, is that the TPP is evil (much the same is being said of the TTIP), but the thing which struck me was the statement that "It was top-secret for years", although New Zealand has just published the text of the agreement online, ahead of the agreed date.

The reason why the author of the story claims the TPP is evil is because of its lack of environmental safeguards. The wording about environmental protection is all about trying to do good things, rather than any ironclad commitments. Whilst this has always been the case for trade agreements, the public are becoming more concerned about the environment, and the condition that it will be in for following generations, and there is an expectation that environmental protection will be better in new treaties, and the relevant clauses will have more teeth.

This, I suspect, is the reason for all the secrecy until now. If the voting public do not know what is being negotiated, it is rather difficult to lobby against it. Too many powerful groups and individuals have a vested interest in getting the TPP approved. I can sympathise with the need to keep some international treaties and agreements secret: things like intelligence sharing and cooperation on military R&D. I also understand that you probably do not want your negotiating position undermined by publishing every detail of a treaty before it is agreed. The issue that delayed publication creates, however, is giving enough time for informed public debate after the negotiation is complete. If a trade agreement takes 7 years to negotiate, as is the case for the TPP, then a proper independent analysis and public discussion of the results needs to be given more than a year, but it seems that the approval plan for TPP does not allow that amount of time (President Obama wants to get the TPP signed and approved before his term in office is over).