View source for Finance:Trade in Services Agreement

{{Short description|Proposed international trade treaty}}
[[File:Trade In Services Agreement Locator.svg|thumb|300x300px|TiSA participating countries]]
The '''Trade in Services Agreement''' ('''TiSA''') was a proposed international trade treaty between 23 Parties, including the [[Social:European Union|European Union]], {{wipe|United Kingdom}} and the {{wipe|United States}}. The agreement aimed at [[Social:Economic liberalism|liberalizing]] the worldwide trade of services such as [[Finance:Banking industry|banking]], healthcare, and transport.<ref name=Sydney /> Criticism about the secrecy of the agreement arose in June 2014, after [[Social:WikiLeaks|WikiLeaks]] released a classified draft of the proposal's financial services annex, dated the previous April.<ref name="Wikileaks"/> Another release took place in June 2015,<ref name="The Guardian June 3, 2015"/> and another took place in May 2016.<ref name="Wikileaks press release"/> As of 2021, no such agreement has ever been reached.

==Origin==
The process was proposed to a group of countries meeting in [[Place:Geneva|Geneva]] called the Really Good Friends. All negotiating meetings take place in Geneva. The EU and the US are the main proponents of the agreement and the authors of most joint changes. The participating countries started crafting the proposed agreement in February 2012<ref name="Trade in Services Agreement TISA">{{cite web|title=Trade in Services Agreement (TISA)|url=http://www.seco.admin.ch/themen/00513/00586/04996/index.html?lang=en|website=State Secretariat for Economic Affairs|accessdate=3 July 2014}}</ref> and presented initial offers at the end of 2013.<ref>{{cite web|title=Trade in Services Agreement (TISA)|url=http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/topics-domaines/services/tisa-acs.aspx?lang=eng|website=Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada|date = 18 July 2013|accessdate=3 July 2014}}.</ref>

==Proposed agreement==
The agreement covers about 70% of the [[Finance:Service economy|global services economy]]. Some claim that the aim of TISA is the privatization of worldwide trade in services in areas such as banking, healthcare, and transport.<ref name=Sydney /><ref name=Australian /> Services comprise 75% of American economic output. In EU states, services comprise almost 75% of its employment and [[Finance:Gross domestic product|gross domestic product]].<ref name=Reuters />

For commitments on what the European Commission calls "'national treatment' (i.e. on equal treatment for foreign and local suppliers)", excluding commitments on market access, the following applies: Once a particular trade barrier has unilaterally been removed in an area where the country has made a commitment, it cannot be reintroduced. This proposal is known as the "ratchet clause".<ref name=EU />

===European Union===
The EU claims its trade agreements do not prevent governments at any level from providing services in areas such as water, education, healthcare, and social services.<ref name=EU /> The EU has stated that companies outside its borders will not be allowed to provide ''publicly funded'' healthcare or social services.<ref name=EU /> The EU has made its position papers, offers, and negotiation reports available online.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa/|title = EU Trade – the EU's Single Voice in International Trade}}</ref>

[[Finance:Market access|Market access]] for publicly funded health, social services and education, water services, film, or TV will not be taken. Therefore, the "ratchet clause" will not apply.<ref name=EU /><ref>{{cite web|title=Trade for All, EU Commission's trade and investment strategy|url=http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/october/tradoc_153846.pdf|publisher=EU Commission|accessdate=20 January 2016}}</ref>

== Parties involved ==
Initially having 16 members, the TISA has expanded to include 23 parties. Since the European Union represents 28 member states, there are 50 countries represented.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/trade-in-services-agreement.html | title=Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) | publisher=Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website – www.dfat.gov.au | accessdate=27 July 2014}}</ref> The number of countries represented in each continent are: 32 in [[Earth:Europe|Europe]], 7 in [[Earth:Asia|Asia]], 5 in [[Earth:North America|North America]], 3 in [[Earth:South America|South America]], 2 in [[Earth:Oceania|Oceania]], and 1 in [[Earth:Africa|Africa]]. The 23 TiSA parties in order of their income categories are:<ref>{{cite web | url=http://peoplesdemocracy.in/2014/0727_pd/trading-away-access-public-services | title=Trading Away Access to Public Services | publisher=People's Democracy | date=27 July 2014 | accessdate=27 July 2014 | author=Amit Sengupta}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Country/Territory Income Group  !! Parties 
|-
| High Income || {{AUS}}<br />{{CAN}}<br />{{CHL}}<br />{{HKG}}<br />{{ISL}}<br />{{ISR}}<br />{{JPN}}<br />{{KOR}}<br />{{LIE}}<br />{{NZL}}<br />{{NOR}}<br />{{CHE}}<br />{{TWN}}<br />{{USA}}<br />''{{EU}}'' (28 countries)
|-
| Upper Middle Income || {{COL}}<br />{{CRC}}<br />{{MUS}}{{Failed verification|date=September 2016}}<br />{{MEX}}<br />{{PAN}}<br />{{PER}}<br />{{TUR}}
|-
| Lower Middle Income || {{PAK}}<br />{{PRY}}
|}

== Controversy ==
The agreement has been criticized for the secrecy around the negotiation. The cover page of the negotiating document leaked by Wikileaks says: "Declassify on: Five years from entry into force of the TISA agreement or, if no agreement enters into force, five years from the close of the negotiations."<ref name="Wikileaks"/> Because of this practice, it is not possible to be informed about the liberalizing rules that the participating countries propose for the future agreement. Only Switzerland has a practice of making public on the Internet all the proposals it submitted to the other parties since June 2012.<ref name="Trade in Services Agreement TISA"/> The European Union published its "offer" for TISA only in July 2014<ref>[http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1133 The EU publishes TiSA position papers, Brussels, 22 July 2014], Retrieved 2014-09-03</ref> after the Wikileaks disclosure.

[[Digital rights]] advocates have also brought attention to the fact that the agreement has provisions which would significantly weaken existing data protection provisions in signatory countries. In particular, the agreement would strip existing protections which aim to keep confidential or personally identifiable data within country borders or which prohibit its movement to other countries which do not have similar data protection laws in place.<ref>{{cite web|title=LEAKED: Secret Negotiations to Let Big Brother Go Global|url=http://wolfstreet.com/2014/12/25/leaked-secret-negotiations-to-let-big-brother-go-global/|website=Wolf Street|date=25 December 2014|publisher=Don Quijones|accessdate=27 December 2014}}</ref>

=== Leaked contents ===
[[Social:WikiLeaks|WikiLeaks]] released a classified draft of the proposal's financial services annex in June 2014, dated the previous April.<ref name="Wikileaks"/> Another release took place in June 2015<ref name="The Guardian June 3, 2015"/> and in May 2016.<ref name="Wikileaks press release"/>

=== Software source disclosure mandate ban ===
The agreement bans government mandates that require disclosure of software [[Source code|source code]] as a condition for the distribution of that software and services related to it, stating "No Party may require the transfer of, or access to, source code of software owned by a person of another Party, as a condition of providing services related to such software in its territory."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/06/wikileaks-releases-secret-tisa-docs-the-more-evil-sibling-of-ttip-and-tpp/|title=WikiLeaks releases secret TISA docs: The more evil sibling of TTIP and TPP|date=4 June 2015|author=Glyn Moody|work=Ars Technica}}</ref> While there are exemptions for "software used for critical infrastructure" and non-mass-market software, the agreement would, for example, prevent governments from forcing suppliers of consumer [[Engineering:Router (computing)|network routers]] to supply the source code for the software for security purposes.<ref name="Malcolm2015">{{cite web|url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/tisa-yet-another-leaked-treaty-youve-never-heard-makes-secret-rules-internet|title=TISA: Yet Another Leaked Treaty You've Never Heard Of Makes Secret Rules for the Internet|date=27 May 2015|accessdate=22 June 2018|last=Malcolm|first=Jeremy|publisher=[[Organization:Electronic Frontier Foundation|Electronic Frontier Foundation]]}}</ref>

==Criticism==
A preliminary analysis of the ''Financial Services Annex'' by prominent free trade critic Professor Jane Kelsey, Faculty of Law, [[Organization:University of Auckland|University of Auckland]], [[Earth:New Zealand|New Zealand]] was published with the WikiLeaks release.<ref name=kelsey>{{cite web|url=https://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/analysis.html|author=Professor Jane Kelsey|publisher=Wikileaks|title=Memorandum on Leaked TISA Financial Services Text|date=19 June 2014}}</ref>

The Public Services International (PSI) organization described TISA as:
<blockquote>
a treaty that would further liberalize trade and investment in services, and expand "regulatory disciplines" on all services sectors, including many public services. The "disciplines," or treaty rules, would provide all foreign providers access to domestic markets at "no less favorable" conditions as domestic suppliers and would restrict governments' ability to regulate, purchase and provide services. This would essentially change the regulation of many public and privatized or commercial services from serving the public interest to serving the profit interests of private, foreign corporations.<ref>{{Cite web
| title = Meet TISA: Another Major Treaty Negotiated In Secret Alongside TPP And TTIP
| work = Techdirt
| accessdate = 2014-07-03
| date = 2014-04-29
| url = https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140428/10593427051/meet-tisa-another-major-treaty-negotiated-secret-alongside-tpp-ttip.shtml
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

One concern is the provisions regarding retention of business records. David Cay Johnston said, "It is ... hard to make the case that the cost of keeping a duplicate record at the home office in a different country is a burden." He noted that business records requirements are sufficiently important that they were codified in law even before the Code of Hammurabi.<ref name = "johnston">{{Cite web
| last = Johnston
| first = David Cay
| title = Thanks to WikiLeaks, public can debate alarming new trade deal
| work = Al Jazeera America
| accessdate = 2014-07-03
| url = http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/wikileaks-trade-inservicesagreementsecrecy.html
}}</ref>

Impacts of the law may include "whether people can get loans or buy insurance and at what prices as well as what jobs may be available."<ref name = "johnston" />

Dr. Patricia Ranald, a research associate at the University of Sydney, said:
<blockquote>
“Amendments from the US are seeking to end publicly provided services like public pension funds, which are referred to as 'monopolies' and to limit public regulation of all financial services ... They want to freeze financial regulation at existing levels, which would mean that governments could not respond to new developments like another global financial crisis."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/secret-trade-negotiations-is-this-the-end-of-the-big-four-20140619-3ah39.html |title=Secret trade negotiations: is this the end of the big four? |last=Dorling |first=Philip |date=June 20, 2014 |website=Sydney Morning Herald |publisher= |access-date=April 28, 2021 |quote=}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Regarding the secrecy of the draft, Professor Kelsey commented: "The secrecy of negotiating documents exceeds even the [[Finance:Trans-Pacific Partnership|Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement]] (TPP) and runs counter to moves in the WTO towards greater openness."<ref name=kelsey /> Johnston adds, "It is impossible to obey a law or know how it affects you when the law is secret."<ref name = "johnston" />

Canadian activist and politician [[Biography:Maude Barlow|Maude Barlow]] argued the TISA didn't protect semi-public services funded by private subjects and by the public authority. She opposed an agreement that "will make it impossible for governments to reverse privatization or decrease the influence of the private sector. Governments will only be able to choose to maintain privatized services as they are or to extend liberalization." For profit corporations were enabled to sue a supranational judicial system so as to avoid the domestic courts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://conseildescanadiens.org/node/14066A|title=Barlow changes TISA in Switzerland|year=2016| author= Brent Patterson}}</ref>

== See also ==
* European Services Forum – lobby
* {{section link|Ratchet effect|Trade legislation}}
* Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)
* Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
* Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA)
* [[Finance:Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement|Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement]] (CETA)

==References==
{{reflist|35em|refs=
<ref name=Australian>{{cite journal|last1=Palmer|first1=Daniel|title=Major banking shake-up ahead|journal=The Australian|date=30 June 2014|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/latest/major-banking-shake-up-ahead/story-e6frg90f-1226972096128?nk=e33ee43bd68ef4e6bf9f4ac679245135|accessdate=2 July 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=Sydney>{{cite web|last1=Dorling|first1=Philip|title=Medical tourism' plan revealed: Australia leads top secret push for globalisation of healthcare|date=5 February 2015|url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/medical-tourism-plan-revealed-australia-leads-top-secret-push-for-globalisation-of-healthcare-20150205-13648w.html|publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald|accessdate=6 February 2015}}</ref>
<ref name=Reuters>{{cite journal|title=U.S. says basic outline in place for international services trade deal|journal=Reuters|date=18 June 2014|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-services-idUSKBN0ET31Y20140618|accessdate=2 July 2014}}</ref>
<ref name=EU>{{cite web|title=Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) Questions and answers|url=http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa/questions-and-answers/|publisher=European Commission|accessdate=6 February 2015}}</ref>
<ref name="The Guardian June 3, 2015">Sam Thielman and Phillip Inman. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/03/wikileaks-documents-trade-in-services-agreement WikiLeaks releases documents related to controversial US trade pact]. theguardian.com. June 3, 2015.</ref>
<ref name="Wikileaks press release">{{cite web|url=https://wikileaks.org/tisa/press.html|author=Wikileaks|publisher=Wikileaks|title=Secret Trade in Services Agreement|date=25 May 2016}}</ref>
<ref name="Wikileaks">{{cite web|url=https://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/press.html|author=Wikileaks|publisher=Wikileaks|title=Secret Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) – Financial Services Annex|date=19 June 2014}}</ref>
}}

== External links==
*[https://wikileaks.org/tisa/ June, July and December 2015 documents release by Wikileaks]
*[https://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/ April 2014 Draft document release by Wikileaks]
*[https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7IEmdsYHQ6Ufk9kSXcyYXloQWV0QmRjM3JjUFFWLUE4WVpLSlRxVkFTQ3BtRS1oUzRyRHM&usp=sharing February 2015 leak]
*[http://www.seco.admin.ch/themen/00513/00586/04996/index.html?lang=en Negotiating documents tabled by Switzerland since June 2012 to present]
*[https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-trade-services-idUSL2N0OY0M020140618 U.S. says basic outline in place for int'l services trade deal]
*[http://teamtisa.org/ Team TISA, advocating for TISA]
* [http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa In focus: Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) – European Commission]
*[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/tisa-yet-another-leaked-treaty-youve-never-heard-makes-secret-rules-internet TISA: Yet Another Leaked Treaty You've Never Heard Of Makes Secret Rules for the Internet – Electronic Frontier Foundation]


[[Category:Commercial treaties]]

{{Sourceattribution|Trade in Services Agreement}}