The economic effects of a free trade deal being negotiated by the administration will remain secret for a decade because of national security implications, according to claims made by the nation’s trade czar.
Trade Representative Michael Froman said the US International Trade Commission (ITC) analysis he recently requested on plans to lift tariffs on over 400 environmentally damaging products should remain classified for a decade.
Froman’s request for a study on the unstable commodities, which include toxic insecticides and nuclear reactor parts, was revealed by Courthouse News this week.
“Consistent with this executive order, this information will be classified on the basis that it concerns economic matters relating to the national security of the United States,” Froman wrote to ITC Chairman Meredith Broadbent last week in a 23 page letter.
The liberalization push is part of the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), an initiative the administration launched on June 13 with the European Union, China, and eleven other World Trade Organization members.
“By cutting tariffs on environmental goods, we can improve access to the technologies that the United States and other countries need to protect our environment, thus lowering the costs of environmental protection,” the USTR claims on its website, describing the aims of the agreement.
The items included in the EGA, however, per Froman’s letter, include “highly toxic alcohols,” cruise ships, motorcycles, freight cars, and paints and varnishes.
Over the last year, Froman has twice requested information from the ITC on the impacts of removing tariffs on so-called environmental goods. In last week’s letter, Froman noted that recently “a range of additional potential products have come to our attention.”
The Trade Rep asked for the study to be completed by December.
ITC told Courthouse News that it “does not discuss ongoing investigations” but will eventually comment. Froman did not reply to the wire service’s request for comment. Critics have said that the Obama administration has been far too secretive in pursuing multilateral trade deals.
When a copy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s draft Investment Chapter was released to the public in March by Wikileaks, for example, text on the very first page of the document stipulated that it was not to be declassified until “four years” after negotiations ended.
