If it hadn’t been for the Wikileaks revelations released in June 2014 no one or almost no one would have heard of TiSA – the Trade in Services Agreement that aims at liberalizing the international trade of services. Everything is up for negotiation: education, health, transport, telecommunications, and financial services. Unions and NGOs see TiSA as a threat to public services and financial sector regulations and also as lowering the level of harmonization over norms in the social, health, and environmental arenas.
The agreement was initiated very quietly and discreetly some years ago. Some 50 countries are represented with the main proponents being the US and the EU. They try to get around obstacles in the WTO (World Trade Organization), which is struggling specifically over the question of services liberalisation. The other participants are: Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland and also includes the emerging/de
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