Vermont legislators to the U.S. Trade Representative: fuck your demands for

secrecy.

Vermont lawmakers are refusing to meet a demand from the office of the U.S. trade representative that they conduct secret talks over the impacts of a proposed international trade agreement.

An ad hoc group of House members was to have a telephone meeting with officials in the USTR on Thursday about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. But state Rep. Mike Yantachka says that office stated in an email the media should be barred from attending.

After reporters from The Associated Press and Vermont Public Radio arrived, the legislators — Reps. Yantachka, Kathy Keenan and Jim McCullough — said they would not ask reporters to leave.

“We don’t have a closed-door policy here,” Yantachka said. The three lawmakers gathered around a speaker phone, called USTR official Rebecca Rosen and told her reporters were present and would not be ejected.

Rosen replied by saying she wanted to talk with her colleagues at the USTR office to determine whether they wanted to have the conversation under the Vermont lawmakers’ terms. She said she would be back in touch Friday about rescheduling.

After getting off the call, Keenan scoffed at Rosen’s title: director of intergovernmental affairs and public engagement.


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http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20140208/NEWS03/702089959