3 ms·

The reason why it was negotiated in secret is because there never would have been a consensus. It's literally a learned best practice of trade diplomacy.

jellicle 11y ago
The reason why it was negotiated in secret was primarily to avoid public opposition to parts of it that will hurt the public. It wasn't secret to the entities benefiting from it, only to the entities being hurt by it.
pbhjpbhj 11y ago
Isn't "we can't negotiate in public because the public won't agree to this" pretty much the most anti-democratic thing the USA[?] could push on the rest of the world. Land of the Free ... How about instead saying: we believe in open democracy and so despite it slightly weakening our position we'll require negotiations to be open and require those ratifying the treaty to first have a free vote in their parliamentary houses [wherein one option will be to ratify following a referendum]. Now that would be spreading democracy. A cynic might think that this was the first best option to secure the world against change following the 1%-protests to ensure rich capitalists maintain their position of power because "oh we can't tax this damaging activity because it makes these people poorer and they made us sign a treaty".
- aianus 11y ago
  Democracy isn't necessarily the best way to handle things. If you asked the people what they want on every bill no country could function. Every tax would get rejected, and every spending bill approved. Similarly for asking each congressperson about each individual clause in the TPP.
  - serge2k 11y ago
    This why the US is a republic and not a democracy.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      In Constitutional structure, the US is both a (democratic, federal) republic and a (representative) democracy, it is not, by design, "a republic and not a democracy". Cynically, one might argue that it is, in practice, a (plutocratic) republic and not a democracy, I suppose.
    - antientropic 11y ago
      Not this again. "Republic" and "democracy" are not mutually exclusive terms: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/13/is-the-united-states-of-america-a-republic-or-a-democracy/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/201...
- serge2k 11y ago
  The problem is you would never reach the point of a vote. You could never reach the needed compromises with hundreds of people trying to serve their own interests at every step.
- morgante 11y ago
  The problem is that if you negotiate in public, pressure groups have the ability to influence or sabotage and sabotage the deal before it's even complete. This can happen even if the the deal would overall be good for the public. Keeping the negotiation process secret allows it to be analyzed as a package.

jellicle 11y ago

The reason why it was negotiated in secret was primarily to avoid public opposition to parts of it that will hurt the public. It wasn't secret to the entities benefiting from it, only to the entities being hurt by it.

pbhjpbhj 11y ago

Isn't "we can't negotiate in public because the public won't agree to this" pretty much the most anti-democratic thing the USA[?] could push on the rest of the world. Land of the Free ... How about instead saying: we believe in open democracy and so despite it slightly weakening our position we'll require negotiations to be open and require those ratifying the treaty to first have a free vote in their parliamentary houses [wherein one option will be to ratify following a referendum]. Now that would be spreading democracy. A cynic might think that this was the first best option to secure the world against change following the 1%-protests to ensure rich capitalists maintain their position of power because "oh we can't tax this damaging activity because it makes these people poorer and they made us sign a treaty".

aianus 11y ago
Democracy isn't necessarily the best way to handle things. If you asked the people what they want on every bill no country could function. Every tax would get rejected, and every spending bill approved. Similarly for asking each congressperson about each individual clause in the TPP.
- serge2k 11y ago
  This why the US is a republic and not a democracy.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    In Constitutional structure, the US is both a (democratic, federal) republic and a (representative) democracy, it is not, by design, "a republic and not a democracy". Cynically, one might argue that it is, in practice, a (plutocratic) republic and not a democracy, I suppose.
  - antientropic 11y ago
    Not this again. "Republic" and "democracy" are not mutually exclusive terms: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/13/is-the-united-states-of-america-a-republic-or-a-democracy/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/201...
serge2k 11y ago
The problem is you would never reach the point of a vote. You could never reach the needed compromises with hundreds of people trying to serve their own interests at every step.
morgante 11y ago
The problem is that if you negotiate in public, pressure groups have the ability to influence or sabotage and sabotage the deal before it's even complete. This can happen even if the the deal would overall be good for the public. Keeping the negotiation process secret allows it to be analyzed as a package.