Archive - 2015

Days ahead of another round of secret international negotiations, WikiLeaks on Wednesday released what it described as "a modern journalistic holy grail: the secret Core Text for the largest 'trade deal' in history." Fifty-two-nation Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) uses trade regulations 'as a smokescreen to limit citizen rights,' says labor leader

Today, 1500 CEST Wednesday, 1 July 2015, WikiLeaks releases a modern journalistic holy grail: the secret Core Text for the largest 'trade deal' in history, the TiSA (Trade In Services Agreement), whose 52 nations together comprise two-thirds of global GDP.

PSI, 1 July 2015 – Yet another series of leaks confirm PSI’s repeated concerns on the restriction of governments’ right to regulate in the public interest as well as underlining the lack of transparency surrounding the Trade In Service Agreement (TISA) negotiations.

Today, Wikileaks released the most updated draft texts on the proposed TISA, along with substantive analysis, on each of four cross-cutting annexes: Domestic Regulation, the “Movement of Natural Persons,” Transparency, and a previously-unreleased annex on Government Procurement. In addition they released the Core Text with accompanying analysis and the agenda for the negotiations next week. The negotiating texts are supposed to remain secret for five years after the deal is finalized or abandoned.

The largest ever leak of negotiating documents from the controversial Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) highlights the madness of secrecy and provides no comfort for users of public services.

The ITF warned that classified documents published today by Wikileaks on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) foresee consolidated power for big transport industry players and threaten the public interest, jobs and a voice for workers.

Classified documents published today by Wikileaks on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) foresee consolidated power for big transport industry players – and threaten the public interest, jobs and a voice for workers, says the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

WikiLeaks releases today 17 secret documents from the ongoing TISA (Trade In Services Agreement) negotiations which cover the United States, the European Union and 23 other countries including Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Taiwan & Israel -- which together comprise two-thirds of global GDP.

The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) is becoming an issue for many people in Europe. Negotiated in secret in Geneva for almost two years by over 50 countries, including the European Union, USA, Japan, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Australia and South Korea, it has taken months of work from global researchers and a spectacular leak from Julian Assange’s Wikileaks to expose anything about its contents.

Press coverage across the world around Wkileaks expose of TISA negotiation texts, largely expressed concern over the impact of secret trade negotiations. However, Edward Alden's "WikiLeaks and Trade: A Healthy Dose of Sunshine," posted at the Council on Foreign Relations, stands out like a sore thumb among the other analysis. This response underlines that Alden's cursory "reading" of the texts exhibits a lack of understanding of the complexity of trade in services rules.