TiSA – the new trade deal being kept under wraps
The deal would enable corporations to monopolise entire sectors, such as telecoms and communications
Earlier this month I wrote about Obama’s plans to fast track TTIP. Now, the WikiLeaks publication of seventeen documents related to the proposed TiSA trade deal has shone a welcome light on the secrecy surrounding negotiations on this trade deal. Although an outline of the plan has been in discussion for over a year it has remained secret, with the documents supposedly due to remain classified for five years
The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) has been around since 2013. Discussions are taking place between the USA, the EU and twenty-two other nations including Canada, Mexico, Australia, Israel, South Korea, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and many others across South America and Asia.
Twelve of the G20 nations have a place at the table, and it has been extended to include Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.
Like TTIP, CETA, and TPP, the TiSA deal would turbo-charge global trade this time in ‘services’, which includes air and maritime transport; parcel delivery; e-commerce; telecommunications; accounting; engineering; consulting; health care; private education; and financial services – around 80 per cent of the US economy.
Like the other deals, TiSA is veiled in secrecy but the leaked documents show that that it would restrict the ability of sovereign governments to manage their own legislation. This would be done through a regulatory cap limiting regulation of services at all levels from national to local government level.
http://www.bilaterals.org/?tisa-the-new-trade-deal-being-kept&lang=en
