http://aftinet.org.au/cms/trade-in-services-agreement-tisa The Trade in Services Agreement
(TISA) is a plurilateral agreement involving the European Union’s 28 member
states and 22 other mostly industrialised countries, including Australia. The TISA arose in 2012 from the
stalemate in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The WTO negotiations stalled because many developing countries want to retain
their ability to provide and regulate services as part of their development
strategies, and therefore would not agree to allowing unrestricted foreign
investment or to reducing their government’s capacity to regulate services. In
addition, other governments are concerned about retaining the policy space to
regulate essential services and to respond to issues like the Global Financial
Crisis and climate change, which require new forms of regulation.
The TISA negotiations are
occurring outside of the WTO framework. The vast majority of the 157 WTO are
developing countries. This means they are not included in the negotiations. The
TISA is a preferential agreement which means any market access is restricted to
those countries involved, in contrast to the WTO, which extends market access
to all members. Once negotiated, the TISA would be presented on a
take-it-or-leave it basis to the majority of WTO developing country members who
were not involved in the negotiations. The TISA is not bound by WTO standards
on transparency, which have in the past included the publication of discussion
papers, negotiating texts and offers. So far no TISA documents have been
published.
See more at http://aftinet.org.au/cms/trade-in-services-agreement-tisa - advice from AFTINET
