WikiLeaks - Trade in Services Agreement
__________________________________________________
Today, Wednesday, 25 May 2016, 11:30am CEST, WikiLeaks releases new
secret documents from the huge Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) which
is being negotiated by the US, EU and 22 other countries that account
for 2/3rds of global GDP.
This
release includes a previously unknown annex to the TiSA core chapter on
"State Owned Enterprises" (SOEs), which imposes unprecedented
restrictions on SOEs and will force majority owned SOEs to operate like
private sector businesses. This corporatisation of public services - to
nearly the same extent as demanded by the recently signed TPP - is a
next step to privatisation of SOEs on the neoliberal agenda behind the
"Big Three" (TTIP,TiSA,TPP).
Other documents in todays release
cover updated versions of annexes to TiSA core chapters that were
published by WikiLeaks in previous releases; these updates show the
advances in the confidential negotiations between the TiSA parties on
the issues of Domestic Regulation, New Provisions, Transparency,
Electronic Commerce, Financial Services, Telecommunication Services,
Professional Services and the Movement of Natural Persons. WikiLeaks is
also publishing expert analyses on some of these documents.
The
annexes on Domestic Regulation, Transparency and New Provisions have
further advanced towards the "deregulation" objectives of big
corporations entering overseas markets. Local regulations like store
size restrictions or hours of operations are considered an obstacle to
achieve "operating efficiencies" of large-scale retailing, disregarding
their public benefit that foster livable neighbors and reasonable hours
of work for employees. The TiSA provisions in their current form will
establish a wide range of new grounds for domestic regulations to be
challenged by corporations - even those without a local presence in that
country.
