Core texts of the secretive Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) have finally been .
The whistleblowing group released the explosive document on July 1, ahead of the a new round of negotiations. The 52 participating countries, including the US, Japan, Australia, Israel and the members of the European Union, are discussing 鈥渓iberalisation鈥 of laws on financial services, telecommunications and cross-border transfer of workers.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called TISA, 鈥渢he largest trade deal in history鈥 and noted that its signatories together make up two-thirds of the world鈥檚 economic output. TISA aims to open to the global private sector services including healthcare, transport and banking.
Together with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and EU and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), which the US is negotiating with Pacific rim countries, the privatisation deals seek to entrench neoliberalism in international law. The deals seek to remove national governments鈥 right to protect services from foreign takeover or provide them publicly.
The 鈥渢rinity鈥 of trade deals can also been seen as a bid to shore up the economic dominance of the West in the face of the rising power of the BRICS nations 鈥 Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. No BRICS nation was asked to join TISA negotiations.
鈥淭he three treaties form not only a new legal order shaped for transnational corporations, but a new economic 鈥榞rand enclosure,鈥 which excludes China and all other BRICS countries,鈥 Assange said.
Among the newly published documents is the TISA Annex on Government Procurement, which bars countries from favouring local provision of services over that of transnational corporations.
Other provisions which expand on the older General Agreement on Trade in Services provide for 鈥渕arket access鈥 rights stopping governments from limiting the size or nature of foreign investment in a service.
鈥淭hese rules are sweeping in their scope, because they limit governments鈥 rights to use almost every tool available to them 鈥 any law, regulation, rule, procedure, decision, administrative action,鈥 Auckland University鈥檚 Professor Jane Kelsey warned.
[Reprinted from . The leaked text can be read at WikiLeaks.]
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