digitaljournal | Wikileaks today released secret draft text from the Trades in
Services Agreement negotiations that confirms the concerns first raised
by the global trade union Public Services International in the recent
ground-breaking report 'TISA versus Public Services.'
Fronting themselves as the 'Really Good Friends of Services,' a group
of 50 countries-representing an estimated 70 per cent share of the
world's trade in services-are secretly negotiating the TISA. This deal
will open up a wide range of public services to be sold permanently for
private profit.
This massive trade deal will put public health care, child care,
postal, broadcasting, water, power, transport and other services at
risk. The TISA will lock in the privatisations of services-even in cases
where private service delivery has failed-meaning governments can never
return water, energy, health, education or other services to public
hands.
The TISA will also restrict a government's right to regulate stronger
standards in the public's interest. For example, it will affect
environmental regulations, licensing of health facilities and
laboratories, waste disposal centres, power plants, school and
university accreditation and broadcast licenses. The proposed deal will
also restrict a government's ability to regulate key sectors including
financial, energy, telecommunications and cross-border data flows.
The TISA will limit the ability of governments to regulate the
financial services industry at exactly the time when the global economy
is still recovering from a crisis caused by financial deregulation.
Responding to today's leak, Public Services International General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli
says, "This agreement is all about making it easier for corporations to
make profits and operate with impunity across borders. The aim of
public services should not be to make profits for large multinational
corporations. Ensuring that failed privatisations can never be reversed
is free market ideology gone mad.
"The secrecy surrounding these negotiations to extend controversial
GATS arrangements into a wide range of areas previously rejected is
anti-democratic in the extreme. If our governments are doing nothing
wrong - why are they hiding these texts?
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