WikiLeaks raising $100,000 reward for 'America's most wanted secret'

Whistle-blowing organisation WikiLeaks is aiming to raise $100,000 (£65,000) through crowdfunding in order to expose what it has labelled "America's most wanted secret": the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

WikiLeaks has already published three chapters about the global trade deal, however 26 chapters still remain secret.

"The transparency clock has run out on the TPP," WikilLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement. "No more secrecy. No more excuses. Let's open the TPP once and for all."

The TPP is a multi-trillion dollar treaty being negotiated between the US, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia and seven other countries. Despite its significance, very little is publicly known about it beyond the three chapters already published by WikiLeaks.

Around 80% of the TPP is not directly related to actual trade and will "intrude into almost every aspect of people's lives", according to WikiLeaks.

"The treaty aims to create a new international legal regime that will allow transnational corporations to bypass domestic courts, evade environmental protections, police the internet on behalf of the content industry, limit the availability of affordable generic medicines, and drastically curtail each country's legislative sovereignty," WikiLeaks said in a statement.

Supporters of the TPP claim that the agreement will curb economic competition from China, however strong opposition from US Democrats has arisen from fears that it will hand too much power to large multinational companies.

Opponents include US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who claims that US citizens would also be opposed to the TPP if they could see what is in it.

It is the first time that WikiLeaks has offered a bounty to whistle-blowers and could signal a new strategy from the organisation to encourage more whistle-blowers to come forward in the future.

At the time of publication, WikiLeaks had raised more than $30,000 through donations from 281 people.