January 15, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, WikiLeaks (click here) posted a draft environment chapter of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that governments have negotiated in secret for nearly four years. TPP nations have billed the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement as an "ambitious, 21st-century trade agreement." However, a joint analysis of the WikiLeaks document, dated November 2013, by environmental organizations reveals that countries are nowhere close to that goal.
Dan Byrnes, Sierra Club, 202-495-3039, daniel.byrnes@sierraclub.org
Elizabeth Heyd, NRDC, 202-289-2424 or 202-725-0648 (cell), eheyd@nrdc.org
Jay Branegan, NRDC, 202-513-6263, jbranegan@nrdc.org
Christopher Conner, WWF, 202-495-4786, christopher.conner@wwfus.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, WikiLeaks (click here) posted a draft environment chapter of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that governments have negotiated in secret for nearly four years. TPP nations have billed the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement as an "ambitious, 21st-century trade agreement." However, a joint analysis of the WikiLeaks document, dated November 2013, by environmental organizations reveals that countries are nowhere close to that goal.
“This peek behind the curtain reveals the absence of an ambitious 21st-century trade agreement promised by negotiating countries,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund (WWF). “The lack of fully-enforceable environmental safeguards means negotiators are allowing a unique opportunity to protect wildlife and support legal sustainable trade of renewable resources to slip through their fingers. These nations account for more than a quarter of global trade in fish and wood products and they have a responsibility to address trade’s impact on wildlife crime, illegal logging, and overfishing.”
Last fall, 24 environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and WWF, sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Froman, calling for a strong and legally enforceable environment chapter that includes the elimination of harmful fisheries subsidies, which are a key driver of overfishing; a ban on trade in illegally harvested timber, wildlife, and fish; and obligations to uphold domestic environmental laws and commitments under multilateral environmental agreements....
