[A2k] Obama trade officials promise through review of transparency policies

[James Love]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/20/ustr2review-transparency/

Obama trade officials promise through review of transparency policies
By James Love, on March 20th, 2009

The following report was prepared by KEI, and reviewed by Daniel Sepulveda =
of USTR:

Obama Administration To Undertake Review of Transparency of Trade Negotiati=
ons

On Thursday, President Obama=E2=80=99s trade officials met with several civ=
il society groups and promised a through review of the USTR policies regard=
ing transparency. The review is expected to be completed within a few month=
s. The process will include a meeting within a month to discuss initial spe=
cific proposals for openness and transparency. Citizens and NGOs are encour=
aged to think about the specific areas where openness and transparency can =
be enhanced and how. Among the specific proposals that will be evaluated ar=
e the following at the request of KEI:

1. Disclosure of all negotiating texts and policy papers 2. Disclosure of a=
ll meeting agenda (as soon as they are available), and participant lists, e=
xtending to plurilateral, regional and bilateral negotiations policies that=
 are common at multilateral institutions.
3. Accreditation of civil society NGOs to attend meetings, including in plu=
rilateral, regional and bilateral negotiations, as is common at multilatera=
l institutions.
4. Public consultations and comment periods, including those that accept co=
mments to web based forums.

In addition, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is welcoming gro=
ups to make other proposals. For example, we suggested making private secto=
r meetings, contacts and written submissions to top trade officials more tr=
ansparent.

This review will be focused on making the recent statements by President Ob=
ama on transparency concrete and effective in the area of trade negotiation=
s. The USTR encourages persons making proposals to address the practical co=
ncerns and needs of government trade negotiators to conduct internal debate=
s on policy and to conduct diplomacy, as well as the public=E2=80=99s inter=
est in access to information. For example, thoughtful discussions of the po=
int at which communications with foreign governments should be disclosed an=
d the extent of the disclosure required are more useful than broad high lev=
el statements on transparency.

The meeting was chaired by Daniel Sepulveda, a former Obama Senate aide who=
 is now Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs. Also=
 attending from USTR were Timothy Reif, the recently appointed General Coun=
sel of USTR, Catherine Field, USTR Chief Counsel for Legal Affairs, and Sta=
nford McCoy, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Intellectual Property =
and Innovation.

Civil society participants included James Love, Judit Rius and Malini Aisol=
a, of Knowledge Ecology International, Chris Murray of Consumers Union, Mar=
cia Carroll of Essential Action and Eddan Katz of EFF (by phone).

KEI is very impressed with the USTR decision to undertake a review of USTR =
transparency efforts. They are taking this much further than simply reviewi=
ng policies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), or recent controversi=
es over the secrecy surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (AC=
TA) negotiations. The review offers the possibility of more transformative =
changes, including pro-active measures to enhance transparency, covering al=
l aspects of USTR operations, including multilateral, plurilateral, regiona=
l, bilateral and unilateral trade policies and negotiations. We are also gr=
ateful that USTR is offering to have a continuing dialogue on this issues. =
KEI will offer additional suggestions on transparency to USTR, and we encou=
rage others to do so also.

The USTR welcomes submissions of those suggestions to Daniel_Sepulveda@ustr=
.eop.gov