(Eyes on Trade/PublicCitizen)
The New York Times has just reported that European government officials have been taking pains to entertain corporations’ deregulatory demands for the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA). The European Commission appears to have mistakenly released minutes of confidential government meetings held with U.S. and European corporations to see how their priorities could shape the proposed U.S.-EU deal. This may not come as a shock to those in the U.S. who know that the Obama administration has been regularly soliciting private advice on both TAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from about 600 corporate trade “advisors” who are granted privileged access to negotiators and secretive trade texts. Continue reading