In a Tuesday morning statement, WikiLeaks announced that it has launched a campaign to crowd fund a $100,000 reward for the missing chapters of “America’s most wanted secret,” the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Over the past two years, WikiLeaks has only been able to obtain just three of the 29 chapters of the highly controversial free trade agreement that has been negotiated by the Obama administration entirely in secret.
The treaty is heralded as a free trade agreement by President Obama, but WikiLeaks says an estimated 80 percent of it does not pertain to trade at all. Of the 29 chapters, just 5 are believed to be associated with trade, while the others encompass topics such as freedom on the Internet and financial regulation. The remaining 26 chapters that the public currently does not have access to have only been made available to select negotiators and corporations that have been granted access behind closed doors.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the largest trade agreement of its kind in history: a multitrillion-dollar deal being negotiated among the U.S., Japan, Mexico, Australia and eight other countries that account for roughly 40 percent of the world’s GDP, according to the Office of United States Trade Representative. The treaty has drawn severe criticism from both Republicans and Democrats as the bill nears a vote in the House.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in the Tuesday morning release that “the transparency clock has run out on the TPP. No more secrecy. No more excuses. Let’s open the TPP once and for all.”
The $100,000 TPP bounty marks the launch of WikiLeaks’ new competition system, which now gives the public the ability to pledge prizes towards each of the world’s most wanted leaks.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.