Services / GATS / TISA

Wikileaks Releases Updated Secret Documents on TISA - OWINFS Press Release, July 1, 2015

1 July, 2015
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.

WikiLeaks Exclusive: Secret core text from Trade in Services Agreement negotiations

1 July, 2015
Leaked negotiations from a key trade deal show radical plans to deregulate services in Australia, including aged care and childcare.

New TISA leaks confirm PSI concerns on deregulation and secrecy: Public Services International (PSI), July 1, 2015

1 July, 2015
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.

Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) - Press release by Wikileaks, July 1, 2015

1 July, 2015
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.

Setting the Record Straight on the TISA Leak

12 June, 2015
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.

Trade in Services Agreement - Press release of Wikileaks

3 June, 2015
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.

Wikileaks Releases Largest Trove of Trade Negotiations Documents in History on Proposed "Trade in Services Agreement" (TISA)

3 June, 2015
Today, as Ministers meet to further a controversial and little known proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) on the sidelines of the annual Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) meeting, Wikileaks released (wikileaks.org/tisa/) a trove of negotiating texts, including annexes covering a wide range of issues on domestic regulation, financial services, air and maritime transportation, electronic commerce, transparency, telecommunications, professional services, and the natural movement of persons (called “Mode4” in trade agreements.)

Secret trade pact set to rob from the poor - and give to global transport firms: ITF

3 June, 2015
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.

Secret trade pact gives ‘consolidated power’ to global transport firms warns ITF

3 June, 2015
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.

Massive leak of TISA trade documents “highlights madness of secrecy”: PSI

3 June, 2015
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.

South nixes US, EU call for binding autonomous services liberalisation

15 May, 2015
A large majority of developing countries on Thursday (7 May) firmly rejected demands from the United States, the European Union, and other developed countries for binding the autonomous liberalisation measures taken by them in the services sectors after the Uruguay Round of commitments. The developing countries made clear that they are not willing to undertake "commitments for free" in the Doha services negotiations, several services negotiators told SUNS.

Differences among WTO members on services component of post-Bali work

15 May, 2015
An informal meeting of the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services on 7 May showed continuing differences among members, with key developing countries making clear that progress on agriculture and the US-EU concessions therein will be the yardstick for progress in other areas of the Doha negotiations.

North-South divide in WTO services talks

8 May, 2015
A large majority of developing and least-developed countries at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have demanded that the Annex C of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration must remain the basis for drawing-up the post-Bali work programme on services, according to trade envoys familiar with the non-attributable summary issued by the chair of the Doha services negotiations on 27 April.

Proposals put forward on services pillar of post-Bali work

24 April, 2015
An informal meeting of the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services on Monday (20 April), amongst others, heard proposals from some Members on defining the services component of the post-Bali work programme on the remaining Doha Development Agenda (DDA) issues. Members also agreed that the services component of the work programme should include market access and rule-making for services trade, with the market access negotiations needing to move in parallel with the rule- making part of the services agenda.

Sharp "asymmetries" in levels of ambition emerge in TiSA talks

20 April, 2015
As the technical experts and negotiators engaged in the controversial plurilateral initiative on Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) prepare a report on their overall progress during the last three years, it has emerged that there will be sharp "asymmetries" in the levels of ambition in different services sectors, according to several members familiar with the negotiations. In this brief D Ravi Kanth provides an overview of levels of ambition in current TISA negotiations,

LDCs assess high-level meeting on LDC services waiver

27 March, 2015
According to trade officials, at the regular meeting of the Council for Trade in Services on 18 March, the LDCs, in their presentation, assessed the high-level meeting that was held on 5 February, in which number of developed country members and developing country members in a position to do so had indicated the services sectors and modes of supply where they intend to provide preferential treatment to the LDCs.

TISA: leaked document reveals secret talks to promote health “tourism” and privatisation

3 February, 2015
The proposal, reportedly tabled by the government of Turkey, was discussed by EU member states last September at the Geneva TISA negotiations. It suggests an annex on health care services in the TISA that would promote offshoring by facilitating patients’ travel abroad to access health services.

Leaked TISA text exposes US threat to privacy, data security and net neutrality

17 December, 2014
Based on a set of leaked US TISA proposal, Prof. Jane Kelsey argues that '‘the US is demanding that New Zealand and other countries accept sweeping rules that would override privacy protections for digitised personal and other data’'

Open TISA to public debate, say experts at first global forum

18 October, 2014
"Open TISA to public debate", was the key demand of the participants at the first Global Trade in Services Forum, in Geneva on 17th October 2014, co-organised by Public Services International (PSI), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS) network.

Presentations: From GATS to TISA - Global Trade in Services Forum, Geneva, 17 October, 2014

18 October, 2014
On 17 October 2014, Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS) network organised, "Global Trade in Services Forum - From GATS to TISA", in partnership with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the Public Services International (PSI). Large number of trade unionists from public and private sector, government representatives, global experts and civil society representatives will take part in the vent.