Services
The international trade in services is big business, comprising between half and three quarters of all economic activity in richer and poorer countries. This is a lucrative market which the world’s transnational corporations want to control. They want services to be treated purely as commodities to be bought and sold in a competitive market.
Services have been described as anything that you cannot drop on your foot, including banks, education, energy, healthcare, water, rubbish collection, libraries, railways, airlines, tourism, TV and radio.
Under the WTO’s GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), and the services provisions in bilateral and regional free trade agreements, governments agree to open the economy to foreign suppliers of certain services. In those services, foreign suppliers must be given at least as favourable treatment as it gives to local suppliers. Governments cannot set limits on the numbers of service suppliers operating in its market or impose requirements for local content.
Free trade in services threatens to restrict a government’s ability to ensure access to affordable, adequate basic services for all its citizens by removing any restrictions and internal government regulations in the area of service delivery considered to be "barriers to trade". These include measures which pursue environmental, social or community objectives.
Services liberalization provisions of bilateral FTAs often go further than governments’ GATS commitments. For example, while Australia excluded water ‘services’ from its GATS offer, this is included under its FTA with the USA, opening up Australia’s water resources and utilities to US-based TNCs.
last update: May 2012
Articles
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17-Jan-2019 Life Gate Maude Barlow. Water isn’t a business, it’s a fundamental right we must protect
CETA and other trade treaties don’t consider water as a basic necessity, they consider it as an investment, as something that can be traded through private services. -
7-Jun-2018 Information Technology Industry Council Business and tech groups call for more review of ePrivacy regulation
The group expressed concern about the extremely broad scope of the draft ePrivacy Regulation, which would greatly limit the processing of a broad array of both personal and non-personal data and lead to inconsistencies with the GDPR framework. -
7-Jun-2018 Times Higher Education How global trade deals could impact universities
Unions and universities worry that agreements could leave them vulnerable to for-profit competition and entrench privatisation. -
23-May-2018 The Guardian Big tech companies are trying to rewrite the rules to get your data
The “e-commerce agenda” – which aims for a “free flow of data” across the globe – is being included in new trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Trade in Services agreement. -
21-May-2018 Avantage utilisation de l’universal robot
L’automatisation robotique pour les cycles. -
27-Apr-2018 Emergentes The e-commerce agenda and the gender gap
The e-commerce agenda reinforces the role women have been apportioned in society, giving them furthermore a false ‘sensation of happiness’ in the face of increasing labor flexibilization and the transformation of production. -
19-Apr-2018 Revista Pueblos Impactos de la nueva oleada de acuerdos comerciales en los servicios públicos: Estado mínimo, mercado máximo
En los últimos años hemos comenzado a discutir sobre instrumentos que, bajo la engañosa idea de modernidad, representan una nueva ofensiva por asegurar cada vez más la presencia del mercado en todas las esferas de la vida de las personas y limitar el espacio soberano para las políticas públicas en favor de las mayorías sociales. -
27-Feb-2018 Profilés en acier inoxydable de Montanstahl
Profilés marchands en acier inoxydable. -
14-Dec-2017 BuzzFeed Data is the new oil, so big tech is pushing for a digital free trade deal
Decades ago it was pharmaceuticals, oil and food. Now tech giants want data to be the next frontier in the free trade agenda. -
23-Nov-2017 Euractiv MEPs amp up pressure on Commission over digital trade
MEPs are exerting pressure on the European Commission to draw up rules on data flows in foreign trade agreements, an area where the EU executive has so far not pinned down any tangible policy. -
20-Oct-2017 An Ultimate Guide Of Go Kart Bearing Replacement
Being into the business of machinery and equipment, you will hardly meet someone who doesn’t know about the variety of bearings. -
12-Sep-2017 MENAFN Regulating across the digital divide
If the world’s three major economies the US, the EU, and China were ever to harmonise their approach to regulating digital trade and global data flows, the pressure on developing countries to accept digital rules would intensify. -
15-Aug-2017 Electronic Frontier Foundation Rising demands for data localization a response to weak data protection mechanisms
Don’t trust data localization exceptions in trade agreements to guarantee protection of personal data. -
31-Aug-2016 IUF Emergency services turn life-threatening under US private equity owners — and a global Trade in Services Agreement would globalize the damage
Vital public services like firefighting and ambulances are being handed over to a small number of transnational companies worldwide, a trend that will be hugely boosted by TPP, TTIP, CETA and TiSA. -
15-Jul-2016 Lexology Financial services: the challenge of data flows
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced a proposal to resolve the data localization issue in financial institutions in future trade agreements. -
4-May-2016 EPSU New EPSU working paper on CETA and TTIP: Potential impacts on health and social services
New working paper highlights the potential harmful impact of CETA and TTIP (and other trade and investment agreements) on healthcare and social services. -
17-Mar-2016 The Jakarta Post Whose healthy ASEAN Community?
The liberalization of health care under the ASEAN Economic Community is clearly biased toward curative services as being more profitable than health promotion. -
10-Mar-2016 Rabble Thousands march against water privatization in Peru as TPP and ICSID ruling looms
More than 2,000 people marched in Lima, Peru in opposition to the government’s plan to privatize public water services. -
14-Feb-2016 S2B Model clauses for the exclusion of public services from trade and investment agreements
Study commissioned by the Chamber of Labour Vienna and the European Federation of Public Service Unions -
16-Sep-2015 Sputnik Con el TiSA, EEUU busca quebrar al Mercosur, indica economista
Detrás del Acuerdo sobre Comercios de Servicios (TiSA, por sus siglas en inglés) está la intención de EEUU de quebrar geopolíticamente al Mercosur, aprovechando que el bloque regional no está pasando por un buen momento.
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Coalition of Service Industries
CSI is the leading US business organization dedicated to the reduction of barriers to US services exports, and to the development of constructive domestic US policies, including tax policies, that enhance the global competitiveness of its members. Website covers bilateral FTAs. -
ESF
The European Services Forum (ESF) is a network of representatives from the European services sector. We are committed to actively promoting the interests of the European services sector and the liberalisation of services markets throughout the world in connection with the GATS negotiations.
