We've moved to a new site!

Join us at publicservices.international - for all the latest news, resources and struggles from around the world.

We are no longer updating world-psi.org and it will be progressively phased out: all content will be migrated to the new site and old links will redirect eventually.

  1. Home
  2. Media
  3. All News
  4. New Trade Deal—TISA—Could Undermine Safety, Environmental, Workers’ Rights Regs

New Trade Deal—TISA—Could Undermine Safety, Environmental, Workers’ Rights Regs

11 September 2014
AFL-CIO - The United States is currently negotiating a new International Services Agreement called the Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA. At the start of 2012, a number of World Trade Organization (WTO) member states, including the European Union, formed a group called the “Really Good Friends of Services” or RGF (and yes, that is really what they named themselves), with the purpose of drafting a trade agreement that would further liberalize trade and investment in services and expand regulatory disciplines on services sectors.

However, like past services agreements (such as the GATS), the TISA is not about tariffs. Rather, a large part of this agreement will be about removing what are called “regulatory barriers to trade,” which is another way of saying that this agreement could essentially change the regulation of many public and commercial services. Instead of benefiting the public interest, this agreement seems positioned to serve the interests of private, for-profit corporations. Read the full story on the AFL-CIO Blog

Also see