Wanted Negotiating Text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
$93,959 Reward
WikiLeaks: We’ve got a job for you
At this very moment, the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP)–a trade agreement that could affect the health and welfare of billions of people worldwide–is being negotiated behind closed doors. While 600 corporate lobbyists have access to the text, the press, the public, and even members of the US Congress are being kept in the dark.
But we don’t have to stand meekly by as corporate cronies decide our futures. Concerned citizens from around the world are pooling together their resources as a reward to WikiLeaks if it makes the negotiating text of the TPP public. Our pledge, as individuals, is to donate this money to WikiLeaks should it leak the document we seek.
As WikiLeaks likes to say, information wants to be free. The negotiating text for the TPP wants to be free. Someone just needs to release it.
FAQ
1. What is the TPP?
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multilateral “free trade” agreement for the Asia-Pacific region which some have taken to referring to as “NAFTA on steroids.” The agreement was originally between just three nations–Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore–with a fourth, Brunei, joining shortly after. Today, seven additional countries are in negotiations to join the agreement: Australia, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Eventually, every Pacific-rim nation could be included, making it possible for this trade agreement to affect the lives of billions of people.
2. What’s so bad about the TPP?
The TPP negotiations have taken place under an unprecedented shrowd of secrecy, denying all but a very few any input into the terms of the agreement. The chapters that have been leaked are quite disturbing, revealing plans that would threaten public health, the environment, internet freedom, and the general well-being of perhaps billions of people. Here’s a little taste of what the agreement would include: foreign investor protections that would help corporations offshore jobs, powers that allow multinational corporations to challenge domestic regulations before international tribunals, a strengthening of patent and intellectual property rules which would, among other things, raise the price of life-saving medicines in third world countries, and the ability for Wall Street to roll back safeguards meant to restore financial stability worldwide.
3. Haven’t parts of the TPP been leaked?
Yes, some chapters of the TPP have been leaked to the public, but we want to see the whole text. We–the people who will be affected by this agreement–have the right to know what our governments are proposing.
4. Why WikiLeaks?
We’re pushing WikiLeaks to do this because, if they do publish the TPP, it will show that WikiLeaks is still relevant to citizen demands for government transparency, that releasing US diplomatic cables wasn’t the end of WikiLeaks’ contribution to public knowledge of government misdeeds. And we want this because it will show that the WikiLeaks campaign for government transparency isn’t just about national security issues.
Another reason for offering the reward to WikiLeaks is to shield the leaker against any claim that they leaked the document for personal gain. It will be clear that the leaker leaked the text to promote the public interest.
5. Why crowdsource the reward?
We didn’t want to ask one rich person or a couple to put up the money for the reward because it’s not just one or a few people who have an interest in the TPP–we all do. By asking people from all walks of life to contribute what they can, we help promote the idea we are all invested in the outcome of these negotiations.
6. How does the pledge thing work?
What happens if WikiLeaks publishes the TPP?
When you make a pledge, all you are doing is promising to make a donation at a later date. No payment information is required. If WikiLeaks should publish the TPP text, we will send you an email encouraging you to fulfill your pledge, along with information about how to make a donation to WikiLeaks.