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The text of the treaty was kept secret even from congress [0], and to read it, they had to request the exact (single) chapter ahead of time, and were not allowe

The text of the treaty was kept secret even from congress [0], and to read it, they had to request the exact (single) chapter ahead of time, and were not allowed to bring any means of copying into the room where they read it in solitude. If they even got the text itself, and not a 'summary' [1]. Meanwhile, "industry representatives" had free access to it, and were largely the ones writing it. The TPP (and other similar trade agreements) are nothing but backdoor means of subverting national legislations in favor of corporations. If four years were lost to China, the corporate authors of the TPP have only themselves to blame, as it was so hideous and anti-consumer, it was one of the few things Trump and Bernie Sanders agreed was bad. [0] But, obviously, not from the other governments negotiating it, showing that the secrecy was not to gain an advantage over the other parties, but over ones own voters and politicians. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership#Secrecy_of_negotiations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership#Secr...

lern_too_spel 4y ago
That is the standard procedure by which all treaties are written according to the US Constitution. The executive branch writes and negotiates treaties, taking input from who they think will be affected, with only the Senate having oversight. The reason for this was explained in The Federalist Papers, and this setup is so successful that every developed country in the world does essentially the same thing and has since before the Constitution was written.
- pannSun 4y ago
  The US constitution requires that treaties be kept secret, even from congress, during negotiations? I'd like a citation on that, and an explanation on why wikipedia implies the secrecy around TPP as unusual - if such secrecy were so standard and great, one would not expect it to be criticized this way.

lern_too_spel 4y ago

That is the standard procedure by which all treaties are written according to the US Constitution. The executive branch writes and negotiates treaties, taking input from who they think will be affected, with only the Senate having oversight. The reason for this was explained in The Federalist Papers, and this setup is so successful that every developed country in the world does essentially the same thing and has since before the Constitution was written.

pannSun 4y ago
The US constitution requires that treaties be kept secret, even from congress, during negotiations? I'd like a citation on that, and an explanation on why wikipedia implies the secrecy around TPP as unusual - if such secrecy were so standard and great, one would not expect it to be criticized this way.