TPP secrecy described by U.S. Senators
The contents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is secret or classified according to:
Trans-Pacific Partnership, Wikipedia.org, accessed September 8, 2015
General outlines and summaries of the agreement have been provided by those conducting negotiations, but the full text of the agreement has been kept classified
Sen. Warren calls on Obama to declassify trade deal details, foxnews.com | 26 April 2015
Here is a link to the April 25, 2015 letter to President Obama, signed by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown. www.citizen.org.
Quoting from the letter:
. . . we write to request that you promptly declassify the latest bracketed negotiating text of the TPP and release it publicly before asking Congress to vote on “fast track” authority to facilitate the TPP’s ratification.
In recent remarks, you suggested that critics of the TPP are “dishonest” when we claim that the TPP is a “secret deal.” Even though negotiations over the TPP are largely complete, your Administration has deemed the draft text of the agreement classified and kept it hidden from public view, thereby making it a secret deal.
As a result of your Administration’s decision, it is currently illegal for the press, experts, advocates, or the general public to review the text of this agreement. And while you noted that Members of Congress may “walk over . . . and read the text of the agreement” – as we have done – you neglected to mention that we are prohibited by law from discussing the specifics of that text in public. . . . “
Democrats revolt against Obama over TPP, webarchive.org, rt.com | 24 May 2012
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced legislation on Wednesday that specifically targets the Obama administration by demanding that the White House open up on details about the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership . . .
Rand Paul demands White House release trade deal text immediately, thehill.com | 6 June 2015
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Saturday it “boggles the mind” that the White House has not yet released the text of trade deal it’s pushing, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). . . .