AFL-CIO Chief Calls for Immediate Release of TPP Text

The Obama administration should release the legal text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership “right now,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a recent letter to President Barack Obama. Trumka rejected U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman’s call to release the text within a month (see 1510130021). “When there is such good news to share, there is no need for secrecy. If TPP will do for the American middle class all that USTR claims, releasing the text would be the single best way to prove that,” said Trumka in the letter. “Creating a level playing field for American workers includes equal access to information, and the only way to ensure that is to ensure that all Americans have equal access to the text – not in 30 days, after the public relations spin has been spun, but right now.”