Digital Freedom Group Calls on Wyden to Strengthen Transparency in TPA
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties advocacy group, recently launched a signature campaign to pressure Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to propose Trade Promotion Authority legislation that strengthens trade negotiating transparency and prevents “extreme copyright and digital privacy provisions.” Wyden vowed in April to introduce new TPA legislation, following the introduction in January of a different TPA bill, but Wyden has not since announced progress in that effort (see 14040919). Some analysts have suggested the U.S. is pushing for stronger intellectual property measures than all other Trans-Pacific Partnership participant nations (see 14030520).
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation demanded that a TPA proposal includes:
- Easy, ongoing access to negotiating texts by all Congress members and their staff with proper security clearance and timely public release of concluded provisions following each round of negotiations
- Ongoing, up-to-date publication of detailed summaries of the USTR's specific proposals being submitted in negotiations
- Regular publication of agendas and transcripts of meetings and of all communications between USTR officials and all stakeholders, including industry groups
- Mandatory negotiating objectives that balance users' rights with those of private industry, including requirements to enact safeguards for free speech, privacy, and access to knowledge
- Congressional certification that negotiating objectives have been met before negotiations are concluded with only the pacts that have been so certified qualifying for expedited consideration
- Congressional approval of trade agreement texts before they can be signed by a president so that Congress explicitly authorizes a president to enter into a pact only after ensuring that an agreement’s contents are acceptable