ACTA FOIA Request FOILED

Jamie Love of KEI reports in Huffington Post that their Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") request for copies of ACTA documents have been denied by the Obama USTR on the basis of state secrecy.

Love says:

The texts are available to the Japanese government. They are available to the 27 member states of the European Union. They are available to the governments of Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia. They are available to Morocco, and many other countries. They are available to "cleared" advisers (mostly well connected lobbyists) for the pharmaceutical, software, entertainment and publishing industries. But they are a secret from you, the public.

Today we received this letter from the White House, Office of the United States Trade Representative. Our FOIA request was denied on the grounds that the documents are "information that is properly classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958."

Here is a link to a PDF of the denial of the FOIA request.

This is very disappointing for those had "hope" for "change" in the way the USTR does business.

HK