NAFTA countries enter confidentiality deal; promise not to leak on each other
WASHINGTON — Canada, the United States, and Mexico have signed a confidentiality agreement designed to prevent leaks during the NAFTA negotiations, with a list of rules to protect details of the offers they submit to each other.
The deal bars the governments from distributing texts, emails, proposals and presentations gathered from the other parties, with a series of guidelines about how the materials should be handled.
There are two exceptions.
Governments can share the information internally, with government officials; and also externally, with the stakeholders they consult on the negotiations. Otherwise, the materials are to be stamped, “Confidential,” and, when not being used, are to be protected in secure locations like locked file cabinets.