Associated Whistleblowing Press | 17 Dec 2014
Brussels
Proposal of New Provisions Applicable to All Services of the secret TISA negotiations
TISA text on E-Commerce, Data Flows and others
The following release is a bilingual copy of the Proposal of New Provisions Applicable to All Services and the Annex on Professional Services of the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). The main players in the top secret negotiations are the United States and all 28 members of the European Union. However, the broad scope of the treaty includes Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey, adding up almost 70% of all trade in services worldwide.
The TISA negotiations aim to further deregulate the world trade in services outside the framework of the World Trade Organization, as important players and their powerful lobbies attempt to overcome pressure of reform after the financial crisis of 2007. If successful, the ample scope in volume of trades will force other countries inside WTO to accept or lose their ability to compete.
The new documents presented in this release shed more light on the ambition of the treaty, as it affects all services ranging from electronic transactions and data flow, to veterinary and architecture services. The proposal stipulates, among other things, that no participating state can stop the use, storage and exchange of personal data relating to their territorial base. At the same time, the text is designed to be difficult to repeal and is to be considered confidential for 5 years after being signed.
Regarding this release, Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary of Public Services International (PSI), said ’the leaked documents confirm our worse fears that TISA is being used to further the interests of some of the largest corporations on earth (...) Negotiation of unrestricted data movement, internet neutrality and how electronic signatures can be used strike to the heart of individuals’ rights. Governments must come clean about what they are negotiating in these secret trade deals’.