Wikileaks on Wednesday purported to publish details of ongoing negotiations over the Trade in Services Agreement in a move that could hand ammunition to opponents of President Obama’s trade agenda.
While the President has repeatedly claimed, to much opposition, that his negotiators are currently finalizing “the most progressive trade deal in history” through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, critics say Wednesday’s publication reveals that his negotiators are seeking, through TISA, another vehicle through which regulators can be hamstrung.
According to the leaked “Domestic Regulations Annex”, for example, the US delegation in February of last year was the only party to oppose language that explicitly recognized the right of signatory nations “to regulate, and to introduce new regulations, on the supply of services within their territories.”
While American negotiators noted that they supported a number of exemptions for regulations based on other numbered, but otherwise unidentified, articles of the working agreement, skeptics were not impressed with the overall tenor of the draft chapter.
“Preliminary analysis notes that the goal of domestic regulation texts is to remove domestic policies, laws and regulations that make it harder for transnational corporations to sell their services in other countries (actually or virtually),” read a statement in response to the publication released by Our World Is Not For Sale. The group is comprised of 251 member organizations and describes itself as a “global network of NGOs and social movements working for a sustainable, socially just, and democratic multilateral trading system.” US members include the Communications Workers of America, the Center for Economic Policy and Research, and Public Citizen.
Another section appearing to bolster claims that the President’s trade agenda is deregulatory, in nature, is the “Financial Services Annex.” In its articles, for example, the US, in February of this year, was the only country to propose loose rules on cross-border data transfers. Specifically, it called for parties to permit “a financial service supplier of another Party to transfer information in electronic or other form, into and out of its territory, for data processing where such processing is required in the financial service supplier’s ordinary course of business.”
The only other delegation to sign onto this proposal, in part, was Peru, and it called for “prior authorization by the regulator” and “adequate safeguards for the protection of personal data”–language that the US did not back.
“Localization” measures, as they are known, have become contentious in the context of trade negotiations.
In December, after the Associated Whistleblower Press published other documents detailing TISA negotiations, some observers noted that proposed anti-localization provisions make it more difficult for regulators to ensure corporations are in compliance with laws. “Governments can and do seek to make regulation more effective when there is a local presence,” University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey and Public Citizen digital rights advocate Burcu Kilic noted in response to that disclosure.
The Obama administration, however, either disagrees or isn’t concerned by those claims. In January, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing–in response to concerns vocalized by chair Orrin Hatch and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)–US Trade Representative Michael Froman said that his team is “continuing to pursue our efforts to put disciplines on localization.” The questions were asked specifically in the context of TPP negotiations. Sen. Thune noted that the issue was “a serious concern” of “US banks and insurers.”
Although Wednesday’s publication received little attention–despite TPA teetering in the balance in the House of Representatives–it was held up by CWA President Larry Cohen as an example of why labor leaders feel like they can’t trust the Obama administration’s approach to trade. Cohen said that Wikileaks’ revelations show “once again how dangerous Fast Track Authority is when it comes to protecting citizen rights vs. corporate rights.”
“This TISA text again favors privatization over public services, limits government action on issues ranging from safety to the environment using trade as a smokescreen to limit citizen rights,” he added.
“Once again Wikileaks reveals what we cannot learn from our own government, a government that defaults to prefer giant trade deals that effect generations of Americans shrouded in secrecy until they are virtually adopted,” he also said.
TISA negotiations were started in February 2012. Parties to the negotiations are the US, EU member states, Japan, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.
Read Wikileaks’ full statement about Wednesday’s TISA document dump here.
