14 February 2010,

The Wellington TPP Action Group will march today at 1.00 pm from Midland Park to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to join the international call for Governments to release the text of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Agreement.

"We are calling on the Government and Trade Minister Tim Groser to release the draft text of the TPP agreement” says Richard Slade spokesperson for the Wellington TPP Action Group. “The negotiations are completed in secret; there is no transparency and no accountability. The process is anti-democratic.

“We are simply asking to see the draft text of the Agreement. TPP negotiations kick-off in Chile this week and we want to know exactly how much of New Zealand’s economic, social and environmental future the Government is bargaining away.

"The citizens of all nine countries who will be bound by the TPP Agreement deserve to see the draft text. Corporations have already had access to the TPP text so why can’t ordinary New Zealanders?

“If the TPP Agreement is really so good for us, why are they scared to release the draft text and open it to scrutiny, at the very least. The reality is, the TPP is the one trade deal to rule them all ".

On 10 February the national TPP Watch group sent an open letter from more than 800 individuals to Prime Minister John Key demanding more openness in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

ENDS

© Scoop Media