The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement - environmental Wikileak

Wikileaks shows that environmental backtracking is taking place much to the distaste of the Asian countries on the other end of the widely covered TPP trade agreement.

As discussed on this blog at length, any new trade deal HAS to be an environmental chapter and it is good news that is this is now widely accepted.  Getting it to "stick" is the next problem and not sadly, not surprisingly, there is a problem.  The environmental lobby is in full retreat and the US will give very little.

Worth keeping an eye on Wikileaks for more revelations.

Coverage of the leak can be found here:

Administration Is Seen as Retreating on Environment in Talks on Pacific Trade [New York Times]

"The Obama administration is retreating from previous demands of strong international environmental protections in order to reach agreement on a sweeping Pacific trade deal that is a pillar of President Obama’s strategic shift to Asia, according to documents obtained by WikiLeaks, environmentalists and people close to the contentious trade talks.

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 The environmental chapter of the trade deal has been among the most highly disputed elements of negotiations in the pact. Participants in the talks, which have dragged on for three years, had hoped to complete the deal by the end of 2013."

Press release: Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) - Environment Chapter [Wikileaks]

"Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' publisher, stated: "Today's WikiLeaks release shows that the public sweetner in the TPP is just media sugar water. The fabled TPP environmental chapter turns out to be a toothless public relations exercise with no enforcement mechanism.""

Administration acquiesces on environment in trade talks [The Hill]

"Reportedly in jeopardy are mandatory pollution control requirements, logging regulations and a ban on harvesting sharks’ fins."