The full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is finally available to the public after the Obama administration released it early Thursday. You can find a PDF version here, and a slightly more Internet-friendly one on Medium.
TPP is a hotly contested deal in the United States that touches 12 countries and about 40 percent of the global economy. Its economic implications are vast. Supporters of TPP tout its ability to open up overseas markets for U.S. companies, while detractors worry that it will cause job losses and depress wages by increasing competition from low-wage workers in other parts of the world. Representatives from the 12 nations in the deal reached an agreement on it last month. Now that the White House has released the full text, it enters into a 90-day review period.
That TPP had previously been unavailable to the public was almost as controversial as the deal itself. In lieu of actual documents, the public was left with whatever information could be gleaned from the government and a few drafts published by Wikileaks. Here’s Slate’s Dan Gillmor on this point back in April:
You might expect that a deal affecting up to 40 percent of the global economy would get near-saturation coverage from political and business journalists. Wishful thinking, as usual. … Oh, there have been some stabs at serious analysis in the press, but most of the coverage has been the standard blend of stenography and rah-rah fluff. New York Times ubercommentator Thomas Friedman, a TPP supporter, transcended self-parody when he said on TV that he supported another trade deal without knowing what was in it, because “I just knew two words: free trade.”
At last, we can all know a good bit more than that.
