Amid Growing Calls To Release TPP Text, NZ Says Transparency Would 'Destroy' Agreement, While USTR Won't Even Talk If Journalists Are Present
from the really-not-getting-it dept
As happened with ACTA, the lack of transparency in the TPP negotiations is emerging as one of the key issues there. Here's a very interesting initiative by politicians from many of the TPP countries:
Senior legislators from Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand and Peru today issued a joint letter seeking the release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) before it is signed, to enable detailed scrutiny and public debate. The signatories include political party leaders and legislators who currently or previously held senior political office in their national governments.
On the www.tppmpsfortransparency.org site, there's a list of the politicians who have signed up, and it's interesting to see the variation across the different countries. For example, there's just one politician each from Australia and Mexico, two from Canada, but 21 from Peru and no less than 44 from Malaysia. That gives a rough measure of where resistance to TPP is strongest -- Techdirt noted that Malaysia's support for TPP was wavering as far back as 2012.
Despite these widespread concerns about the lack of transparency, the USTR shows no signs of addressing them. Here's what happened recently in the US:
Vermont lawmakers are refusing to meet a demand from the office of the U.S. trade representative that they conduct secret talks over the impacts of a proposed international trade agreement.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand, politicians are resorting to desperate justifications of secrecy. Here's what Tim Groser, the country's trade minister, had to say on the subject:
An ad hoc group of House members was to have a telephone meeting with officials in the USTR on Thursday about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. But state Rep. Mike Yantachka says that office stated in an email the media should be barred from attending.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.
The key concern should not be about helping the process at all costs, but making sure that it is in the interests of the public -- here, the New Zealand public. Keeping it secret might well make it easier to sell them down the river, but that's hardly a benefit. And if the "full glare of transparency" does increase the controversy, that suggests there isn't much support for the negotiations in the first place.
In other words, Groser's comments simply confirm what everyone fears: secrecy is being used to push through a bad deal that would never be accepted if negotiated out in the open as happens routinely for other, more democratic discussions.
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Filed Under: new zealand, tpp, transparency, ustr
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It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
Crazy idea, I know.
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Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
If this was actually meant for the public, we could see it and have input.
Perhaps it is time to halt funding USTR until such time as they decide to include the public. They will of course never happen, we can screw up the entire nation because one small minded dolt wants to win points against a law he dislikes but to halt the wholesale screwing over of the people he is supposed to represent? Hell no.
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Re: Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
At least there is a movement, not on the severely tainted TPP, but on the subject of transparency. USTR cannot keep things like ACTA and TPP floating without fast-track. Grow or pay, seems like the situation for USTR. Their model of privileged transparency is dead. Grow or pay!
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Re: Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
That's a thundering endorsement and justification. In a similar vein, the TPP will deliver tremendous benefits for the populace which is unable to comprehend the long-term consequences and thus is better off not knowing about them.
TPP will provide a bulwark against terrorism, child pornography and content piracy and will keep the American way of life and Mickey Mouse alive and kicking for another fifty years at least, trying to escape.
Was there anything I forgot?
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Re: Re: Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
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Re: Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
That's actually a pretty good idea. We've already got bills going around to defund one rogue Executive agency: the NSA. Why not make it two?
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Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
I dont think they appreciate how this kind of thing is pissing folks off, this is something FREEFOLKS dont expect from a freeworld, you can read between the lines on what that implies
i mean passing a global trade agreement that could affect the lives if folks globally, and the only time we are allowed to even know whats in it, is when its passed, and it starts affecting us.........wanna know why they think they can do this, because for the last decade or so, they've been doing this, if not indeed much longer, but most assuredly it is getting worse..........there is no representation, there is only authoratizism.......and FUCK YES i pray to see them get their karma
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Re: Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
We once let a legislator get a total free pass on this sentiment, others in government obviously noticed an the USTR believes they should be able to act the same way.
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Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
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Re: It may sound crazy, but hear me out...
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Glare of publicity
They know this turd stinks and that the public would, if they got one whiff of it, demand their representatives reject it.
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What are they afraid of
(touché)
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Re: What are they afraid of
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What an absolute cunt
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Re: What an absolute cunt
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Re: What an absolute cunt
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Re: Re: What an absolute cunt
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taking the same stance as the USTR, against the people will not do the NZ government any favors at all! it is aleready seen as nothing less than the USA's bitch and following this stupid line is making things worse!
i am trying to think what, apart from the innumerable benefits to the USA, mainly, entertainments industries, would be destroyed if the text were to be released? the back-handers perhaps? what about the people actually finding out just how they are going to be royally screwed by both their own government and that of the USA, who, incidentally, never do a damn thing unless it benefits them and US industries at the complete expense of everyone else!!
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bad deal for every country except the USA!
bad deal for every industry, everywhere, except the USA (and subsidiaries)
bad deal for every citizen in every country including the USA!
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It's a bad deal for the USA as well. It's a good deal for multinational corporations.
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TPP transparency
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Re: TPP transparency
They are so scared shitless that if the poison they are brewing is leaked out, they will be crucified by the public, and probably stoned, shot, hanged, stabbed and then executed.
So please, no, this is not transparency at all, it is a statement that they couldn't possibly be transparent or they couldn't steal away everyone's rights so a handful of corporations can collect all the money in the world, now could they?
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Re: Re: TPP transparency
This is an admission that the agreement is bad and will certainly cause another massive backlash like SOPA/PIPA and ACTA caused a couple years ago, they fear history will repeat unless they can keep it as secret as possible.
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I just remembered, I actually attended one of the talks when the TPP was in its infancy (back then I used to work at the interior ministry)... I remember it was just about some sort of corp. ID card that made entering ports easier or something.
Now it mutated into this...
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Venkman: Groser was very big in Corporatania.
Dana: Well, what's he doing in my business?
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Well...
Next.
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If transparency would kill it, then it's dead.
How do I know this? Well, let's see.
Historically speaking, when England set a tax on the sale of Tea in Boston, that led to what???
Exactly.
So, please, either go public with the TTP, or kill it now, before you have to fight the world's population when they realize you've sold them out for nothing but corporate greed.
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Another victory for the people
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/14/white-house-trade-deal_n_4790338.html
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If TPP is so wonderful and lovely, would anyone care to bet if they'd sign on to this?
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If you're planning to substantially penalize people for banking offshore, why would you give them a warning?
It would be like a detective telling the media they're gonna clamp down on drug trafficking gangs in a certain area, two months before they'd planned any raids.
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