The Future World of Work | 9 July 2017

TiSA - Foul play

By Christina Colclough

This report brings to you the naked truth about TiSA - the trade in services agreement that is being negotiated in secret by 23 countries, including the EU.

Aimed at creating a ’21st century" agreement that removes all barriers to trade and guarantees fully liberalised markets for services not yet in existence, TiSA will, if ever signed, put handcuffs on governments’ right to regulate. It too will lead to a rapid race to the bottom in labour standards and subject local and national companies to fierce, if not devastating, competition from large multinational corporations.

TiSA is all about the future world of work.

Globally, TiSA will harm the Global South, leaving a greater Digital Divide and putting huge restraints on the sound development of public services.

Philip Jennings, UNIs General Secretary comments:

“Nothing in this report justifies the huge price billions of workers and citizens will pay for something that will benefit only the few.”

By focusing on UNI sectors finance, telecommunication and postal services and TiSA’s consequences on workers rights, this report mixes deep technical analysis with easy accessible sector chapters. Having access to the leaked texts and additional insider information, Professor Jane Kelsey, can do what very few others can, namely provide a full and detailed understanding of the consequences of TiSA.

The report also affords particular attention to the whole notion of e-commerce, and its implicit push for free data flows at the detriment of privacy rights and country regulation.

TiSA must be stopped

There is no doubt that TiSA and equivalent trade discussions in the WTO on e-commerce must be stopped. It is up to you to call you governments out and make them owe up to the devastation they are close to signing.

You can download the entire report on the link at the bottom of this page, or read it here. Individual chapters are available for download here.