At Auckland TPP talks, some stakeholders are more official than others

They’re only two brief emails, but they say quite a lot about the Harper government’s approach to transparency in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

On Thursday iPolitics was forwarded an e-mail that the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) sent to an “official stakeholder” who’ll be attending the TPP’s 15th Round of negotiations in Auckland, New Zealand next week.

From the email:

Following your registration as an official stakeholder of the TPP negotiations round taking place in Auckland, New Zealand, from December 3-12 we would appreciate it if you could confirm, by responding to this email, that you are still intending to travel to Auckland for the round.

It then asks the “official stakeholder,” who wished to remain anonymous, to sign and return an attached non-disclosure agreement.

Professor Michael Geist posted the agreement on his blog earlier today.

The request to sign the non-disclosure agreement came as a surprise to the recipient of the e-mail, because they attended the last TPP round in Leesburg, Virginia as a stakeholder and weren’t asked to sign anything then.

In fact, it’s become standard in the TPP negotiations to allocate one day to stakeholders, during which they’re briefed by negotiators and allowed to ask them questions.

The point is to add a little transparency (in the Auckland Round – it’ll be on December 7).

To suddenly start requiring participants to keep mum about what they’re told on the stakeholder day, therefore, would pretty much defeat the purpose of having the stakeholder day in the first place.

But it turned out the first DFAIT e-mail was a mistake.

A follow-up asked the stakeholder to disregard the first, as it was sent “by error”.

It was intended for a different kind of stakeholder — an “official” one.

As DFAIT spokesperson Caitlin Workman wrote in an e-mail:

“Canada consults regularly with representatives from industry and civil society in its ongoing trade negotiations and to do so prepares confidentiality agreements so they can share information that will help inform the Canadian position in specific areas of the negotiations.”

This particular stakeholder, however, wasn’t one they planned on consulting, meaning they weren’t obliged to sign the non-disclosure agreement, but also wouldn’t be privy to the same information – presumably access to the actual negotiating texts.

iPolitics tried to find out who is and isn’t part of the “official stakeholder” group in Auckland, but didn’t get an answer from DFAIT.

Meanwhile, Michael Geist argued there appears to be a two-tiered approach to transparency.

…the lack of transparency with the TPP is now exacerbated by a two-tier approach to TPP information with a select, secret group gaining insider access to information. DFAIT should immediately disclose who has been invited to join the insider group, why it is has established a two-tier approach, and how it intends to ensure that all Canadians have access to the latest TPP developments.

November 30, 2012

Source: ipolitics.ca