The latest round of negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement continued in secrecy with a lockout of civil society as 11 nations continued talks on their "corporate-coup-by-trade-pact."

The 15th round of negotiations, the last until March 2013, took place in Auckland, New Zealand and ended on Wednesday.

Watchdogs and digital rights advocates have slammed the TPP for the lack of transparency on the agreement and its corporate-friendly agenda.

Public Citizen has referred to the pact as a "Corporate Power Tool of the 1%" and a "Supersized NAFTA."

As the Auckland talks concluded, Lori Wallach of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, who was at the talks, issued this scathing statement:

While the public protests outside TPP negotiations held at the Auckland Skycity Casino and Convention Center grew, talks dragged as U.S. officials doubled down on secrecy and pushed extreme corporate demands that are opposed by many other TPP nations. President Obama’s call to supersize NAFTA is dangerous under any timeline, but to try to do so by next fall in the context of secret negotiations that exclude Congress and the public – while providing access for 600 corporate advisors – is obscene. Either U.S. negotiators can back away from their corporate advisors’ special interest agenda and finish a real trade deal, or they can waste a lot of time attempting a corporate-coup-by-trade-pact that Congress and the public won’t accept.

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