New Zealand TPP Talks More Secretive than Previous Rounds, Public Interest Groups Say

Being “locked out of the entire venue” prevents stakeholders from interacting with negotiators outside of the actual negotiations themselves, the group said. Stakeholders typically interact with negotiators in the hallways or lobbies outside of negotiation spaces, EFF activist Parker Higgins told us. In New Zealand, he said, “unless you're a delegate, you're not allowed in.” During previous rounds, “we could access the lobby and other publicly accessible areas, which was a very useful way to speak directly with negotiators during their breaks,” said Jodie Griffin, staff attorney at Public Knowledge. PK didn’t send staff to New Zealand, but is communicating with other public interest groups there who said they're being denied access to public parts of the convention center.

Only some stakeholders are experiencing the increased restrictions, stakeholders wrote. Lobbyists “looking to protect their outdated business models have, if anything, been provided greater access and influence over the drafting of the agreement than our groups,” the group said. Griffin hadn’t witnessed stakeholders receiving different treatment, though she said she’s heard from allies who are in New Zealand that it’s happened to them. “If true, it would be very troubling and would only deepen concerns that the TPP negotiation process has locked out civil society while allowing industry stakeholders the ability to access and influence the text."

"New Zealand determined the formal stakeholder-negotiator engagement” for the stakeholder day and for such access in general, a USTR spokeswoman said. New Zealand has “provided every stakeholder with a contact person from each delegation, with which the stakeholders can reach out to in order to schedule meeting,” her email continued.

The structure for stakeholders to interact with negotiators is “determined by the venue, at least on paper,” Higgins said. While there have been no formal complaints that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has pushed New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) for a more secretive setup, “there’s an undercurrent of concern” that the U.S. played a role in the new restrictions, Higgins said, because the “U.S. delegation is ... more committed to the secrecy of things."

"New Zealand determined the formal stakeholder-negotiator engagement” for the stakeholder day and for such access in general, a USTR spokeswoman said. New Zealand has “provided every stakeholder with a contact person from each delegation, with which the stakeholders can reach out to in order to schedule meeting,” her email continued.

These restrictions are “reflective of the ongoing lack of transparency that has plagued the TPP negotiations from the very beginning,” the stakeholders wrote. In the lead-up to the Leesburg round of negotiations, USTR changed the amount of time stakeholders would have for presentations to negotiators, first from 15 minutes to eight minutes, then to 10 minutes. In addition to restrictions on interacting with negotiators, delegates do not publicly release negotiation drafts.

The TPP negotiation process needs to be kept confidential, MFAT wrote in a blog post this week (http://xrl.us/bn4y4y). A confidential negotiation process, “common to many international processes,” provides “space to work through these issues, for governments to consider their policy positions, and for negotiators to work together to construct solutions that are acceptable to all Parties,” MFAT wrote. Stakeholders are “extensively” involved in the negotiation process, the blog post said. Negotiators “engage regularly with members of the public in the lead up to negotiating rounds,” it said. They've “met with over 50 stakeholders groups, including business groups, local councils, health sector representatives, unions, NGOs, academics and other stakeholders” in the last month to prepare for the current round of negotiations, and engaged with reporters, MFAT said. It had no further comment.