Re-writing how Governments work: Trade In Services Agreement (part 2 out of 2)

Parties to Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)

The three broad goals of TISA:

• To advance the commercial interests of its services industry that supplies services across the border. There would be particular gains to the information telecommunications and technology sector, but would protect U.S. competitive advantage and monopoly rights over intellectual property and technology.
• To serve “a range of ‘national security’ and commercial purposes” by consolidating data repositories to the benefit of the U.S. government, transnational companies and third-party commercial interests.
• To prevent or restrict government regulation that impedes the activities and profits of the major global services industries, and guarantees unrestricted cross-border movement of data.

     Critics argue that,“The proposed TISA is an assault on the public interest as it fails to ensure that foreign investments in service sectors actually promote public goals and sustainable economies. We are particularly wary of further undermining of essential services such as healthcare and insurance, water and energy provision, postal distribution, education, public transportation, sanitation, and others if they are handed over to private and foreign corporations motivated only by profits and available only to those who can pay market rates.”

     In fact, restrictions on the financial industry would be illegal.  TISA would require signatory governments to allow any corporation that offers a “financial service” — that includes insurance as well as all forms of trading and speculation — to expand operations at will and would prohibit new financial regulations. These offensives are incorporated in TISA’s Financial Services Annex, which would:

• Require countries to change their laws to conform to the annex’s text (Annex Article 3).
• Require countries to “eliminate … or reduce [the] scope” of state enterprises (Article 5).
• Prohibit any “buy local” rules for government agencies (Article 6).
• Prohibit any limitations on foreign financial firms’ activity (articles 7 and 10).
• Prohibit restrictions on the transfer of any data collected, including across borders (articles 8 and 11).
• Prohibit any restrictions on the size or expansion of financial companies and a ban on new regulations (Article 15).
• Require any government that offers financial products through its postal service to lessen the quality of its products so that those are no better than what private corporations offer (Article 22).

     The ninth, and most recent, round of TISA negotiations took place on December 1 to 5 in Australia.  The next round of TISA negotiations are scheduled for Geneva February 9 to 13, 2015. Fifty countries are negotiating TISA, including the 28 countries of the European Union. Among other countries are Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Norway and Switzerland. TISA will depend on the “investor-state dispute mechanism” generally mandated in “free trade” agreements. Deceptively bland sounding, the mechanism is a secret tribunal to which a “dispute” is sent when a corporation wants a safety or environmental regulation or law changed so as to increase its profits. One of the most frequently used of these tribunals is an arm of the World Bank.  Many of the judges who sit on these tribunals are corporate lawyers who otherwise represent corporations in similar disputes with governments, and there is no appeal to their decisions. These rulings become a benchmark for subsequent disputes, thereby pushing the interpretations further in favor of multinational capital.

SIDE NOTE:
     As the masses are distracted by "Rape Culture", Palestinian statehood, Global Revolution, and "Black Lives Matter" campaigns -the global economy deteriorates even further.  Meanwhile, the global elite advance their global agenda of preservation, consolidation, and crystallization of power through the strengthening of institutes (which continues methodically and unapologetically).  With "Bail In's", "Bail Out's", and Confiscation of Bank Deposits already in place and ready to go by 2015, in order to save the banking system, the masses are now on the hook for any Crash that may occur whether in be in the Derivatives Market or the Housing Market.  With many people already burdened by debt, the weight of the world is weighing heavily on their shoulders and minds.  Many people will argue that Unions are the only way to stop this catastrophe from happening, but ironically enough, Unions are not even mentioning T.I.S.A., T.P.P., or T.T.I.P. or their impact on workers.  The masses have to give up the misguided view of there being a "worker's party", or a "union party", or a "labour party".  None of these parties exist.  These "union" parties only exist in name alone and career politicians exploit the fears and worries of voters in order to get elected, earn a career, and in order to social network so that when they end their career's as politicians, they have something else on the table and can gracefully bow out.  The next Crash will allow for the mass manufacturing of machines to occur in order to allow for people who are unemployed to have employment.  The irony though, is as it allows for a certain amount of people to work, it also allows machines to replace people in most sectors of the workforce.  Therefore, the masses are again complicit in transforming their future similar to the Industrial Revolution or the Technological & Digital Revolution.