I'm of two minds on this provision. First is that I'm very uncertain that it is a good idea to allow a gov't regulatory agency to require access to source code

I'm of two minds on this provision. First is that I'm very uncertain that it is a good idea to allow a gov't regulatory agency to require access to source code as a condition of access to a marketplace. Especially if it is anything more than simple access, like some form of auditing. Who's going to pay for whatever the regulatory agency is doing with the code (most likely the code's owner)? Also how long is it going to take the agency to issue an authorization? How would this impact code delivered to web browsers? Especially something packaged up as a webassembly or native plugin? So... any new regulatory body that requires the ability to examine source code seems like it would need to navigate a minefield of problems. I doubt that a gov't agency could strike the right balance, and the side effect would be a significant barriers to trading in software. On the other hand, the recent spat of problems with automobile software (Volkswagen, Toyota) do seem to make the case that some regulatory action might be necessary. Certainly requiring source code access is not that unusual in court cases, but do we want to wait until these companies are getting sued? Also with the expectation that driverless cars are coming... well.. there's going to be a lot of safety concerns there. On the gripping hand, the FDA's medical device regulations seem to handle the issue of software without requiring access to source code (http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/ucm085281.htm http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/ucm085281...). The TPP doesn't prevent any sort of validation regime requirement for products containing software... so maybe that's the right approach for specific product types (life critical, security critical... though what about browsers?). The TPP also doesn't prevent source code access via a suit or enforcement action, so if a problem does appear an appropriate regulatory body could demand source code (eg. NTSB could take an enforcement action of "validation audit" which requires the validation records and associated source code). So... yet another part of the TPP that I'm conflicted on... sigh.