Enhanced Access to Information and Ability to Participate Effectively

A coalition of organizations requests that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) adopt specific transparency measures for trade negotiations, including the timely publication of proposed agreement texts and negotiating proposals on its website to ensure broader public participation and avoid perceived bias.

• The signatories request that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) implement three specific transparency measures for all bilateral and regional trade negotiations: posting proposed agreement texts for public comment via the Federal Register at least 30 days before the negotiation phase ends, publishing all received comments on the USTR website, and posting U.S. negotiating proposals and accompanying documents when they are submitted to other countries.
• The authors argue that the current practice of sharing proposed agreement texts on an ad hoc basis with interested parties rather than routinely making them public deprives some groups of access and creates a risk of perceived bias or favoritism.
• To address potential objections from negotiating partners regarding public disclosure, the letter suggests that the U.S. make it a condition of entry into negotiations that partner governments agree in advance to the USTR's timely publication of draft texts.

APA

Donnelly, J. M. (2004). Enhanced Access to Information and Ability to Participate Effectively. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/news/letter-to-zoellick-re-enhanced-access-to-information-and-ability-to-participate-effectively/

Chicago

Donnelly, J. Michael. Enhanced Access to Information and Ability to Participate Effectively. Center for International Environmental Law, 2004. https://www.ciel.org/news/letter-to-zoellick-re-enhanced-access-to-information-and-ability-to-participate-effectively/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Donnelly |first1=J. Michael |title=Enhanced Access to Information and Ability to Participate Effectively |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=13 January 2004 |url=https://www.ciel.org/news/letter-to-zoellick-re-enhanced-access-to-information-and-ability-to-participate-effectively/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{donnelly2004enhanced, author = {Donnelly, J. Michael}, title = {{Enhanced Access to Information and Ability to Participate Effectively}}, publisher = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2004}, month = jan, url = {https://www.ciel.org/news/letter-to-zoellick-re-enhanced-access-to-information-and-ability-to-participate-effectively/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }