Civil Society Media Release from TPP Negotiation Round, Brunei Darassalam
The Civil Society stakeholders for the Brunei round of TPP negotiations are very disappointed that no formal report from the Chief Negotiators was presented, nor the opportunity for stakeholders to ask questions in a forum where all could hear the answers.
At this round of TPP negotiations the stakeholder session ended with a mingling of negotiators with stakeholders in a stand-up format. While we found the negotiators to be friendly and open to questions, the setting did not enable many stakeholders to ask their questions and the answers given were not available to everyone.
There were a number of questions we would liked to have heard answers to, of these the most pressing are:
- Will there be another round of negotiations?
- Will a full timetable be released?
- We know there are inter-sessional meetings planned for September, what, if any, arrangements are being made for stakeholder engagement at these meetings?
- Will there be media briefings at the inter-sessional meetings?
- The Civil Society represented at the Brunei round consisted of a number of NGOs and community organisations who have very limited resources. To come to a negotiation round and not be able to question Chief Negotiators is a huge disappointment.
We continue to urge for greater transparency and accountability, and we ask again for the release of a draft negotiating text.
Signed:
Hadyn Green
Consumer NZ
Yoshiko Matsuda
What is TPP?
Trish Hepworth
Australian Digital Alliance
Patricia Ranald
Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
Yasuaki Yamaura
Consumers Union of Japan
Yasuo Kondo
People’s Action Against TPP (Japan)
Krista L. Cox
Knowledge Ecology International