From education to transport, from finance
to health. The new Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) is posing serious threats
to quality standards in various public sectors that affect the lives of
citizens.
This is what has emerged from 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.
Leading experts and over 140
representatives from trade unions, civil society and governments expressed
their concerns about the new trade agreement, which is being negotiated in
secrecy by a small group of governments and supported by a coalition of
corporations.
“The secrecy of these trade agreements
neglects any democratic participation,” says Jane
Kelsey, professor of law at the university of Auckland, New Zealand. “Services are fundamental to people's daily lives, and what we see in
these agreements is an attempt to turn them into commercial products, in ways
that benefit just the biggest companies in the world.”
According to Herta
Däubler-Gmelin, former Minister of Justice of Germany,
trade agreements should be discussed by national parliaments and within the
European Parliament in full transparency, or they will just foster protest and
not deliver the results their supporters keep promising.
In the United States, “the industry and
trade lobbies represent the lion's share in the trade advisory committee,
reaching 85 per cent of the total members” revealed Celeste
Drake, trade and globalisation policy specialist at AFL-CIO.
The forum represented a unique opportunity
to examine the negative impact of TISA and the darkest side of its
privatisation and deregulation agenda, but also to start and elaborate
alternatives and solutions to the ongoing process.
“The interest and participation in the
forum reflects the growing concern about these secret talks,” says Daniel
Bertossa, Director of Policy and Governance at PSI. “It's clear from today that
trade unionists and civil society are angry about what is being negotiated in
their name.”
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