News

“I just don’t get it. On the one hand governments across the world are currently negotiating and implementing post-crisis regulation aimed at preventing another financial crisis of the 2008 magnitude. On the other hand, these very same governments are negotiating, behind closed doors, the TiSA agreement, which will roll back financial regulation, remove safeguards against new and risky financial services and products, and liberalise the finance sector like never before. It doesn’t make sense.”

WTO Public Forum gathers specialists

This is how Christina Colclough, UNI Global Union’s Senior Advisor on trade, began her intervention at a panel debate on TiSA held at the WTO Public Forum on Wednesday September 28. Together with specialists from the US, Brazil, the Philippines, France and Switzerland, the panel analysed the leaked TiSA texts. Besides discussing the financial services annex, the panel covered areas of great concern for UNIs membership, namely the annex on E-commerce, the Mode-4 rules on the movement of natural persons, the annex on financial services and the overall core text.

TiSA - the fast track to full liberalisation

Colclough adds: “UNI has taken a strong stand on TiSA and we cannot accept the secret negotiation process. If TiSA gets signed, there is no turning back. From that moment on, public services in the developing countries cannot be expanded. Every development will have to be privatised and open to international companies. Across the 50 participating countries, TiSA will benefit the mega multinational corporations at the expense of our many small companies where the majority of people work. That this agreement is being negotiated in secret and that the public relies on leaked documents to even get a small glimpse into its consequences is a disgrace”.

Call for Action – Safeguard Democracy!

UNI Global calls on affiliates to take action, safeguard democracy and the public interest and demand from their governments to pull out of the negotiations. General Secretary Philip Jennings add: “Our brothers and sisters in Uruguay lead the public campaign against TiSA and through persuasive action, expertise and campaigns managed to persuade the Uruguayan government to pull out of TiSA. It can be done, and others must follow suit. With the tens of thousands of demonstrators out on the streets in Germany and across Europe, the protest decibels are indeed rising.”