[FSFLA] [Internet Policy] The Ecologist: TPP and TTIP are not dead: now they're called the Trade In Services Agreement

[willi uebelherr]

Dear Ricardo,

yes, in all regions we can apply and we should apply. We need our 
regional independence and the base for that is our regional independence 
in the economy. Then and only then we can determine our way of life itself.

All this trade agreements are oriented to the destroying of 
local/regional self sufficiency. And this means, to create some 
conditions, that are very specific to few groups.

The same we have in Europe, Africa and Asia. It is not a question for 
specific regional parts of our planet. This means, that we act on the 
base on cooperation, we help us together, because we will be happy if 
people in other regions are able to organise her life independent of others.

The core of all this agreements is the security of private ownership. 
But this is always the core of the state law. And the most important 
part is the privatisation of knowledge with the patent and licence right.

Therefore we act for:

"no private ownership on common resources",
"knowledge is always world heritage" and
"global thinking, local doing".

many greetings, willi
Asuncion, Paraguay


On 13/02/2017 13:00, Ricardo Jiménez Guido wrote:
> Ok, thank you.
> I have a question, the opportunity is only for USA people or people of Latin America like me, from Costa Rica can apply too.
>
> Thanks for the fast answser and the great time.
> Regards from Costa Rica.
>
>
> Ok, gracias. Tengo una pregunta, la oportunidad es sólo para los EE.UU. o personas de América Latina como yo, de Costa Rica puede aplicar también. Gracias por la respuesta rápida y el gran momento. Saludos de Costa Rica.
>
> Ricardo Jiménez Guido
>   *   Teléfono: (506) 2229-18-73
>   *   Correo electrónico:
>  texpierelectronics at outlook.com
> [1474698004554_TEXPIERELECTRONICS.png.png]
>
> ________________________________
> De: InternetPolicy <internetpolicy-bounces at elists.isoc.org> en nombre de willi uebelherr <willi.uebelherr at riseup.net>
> Enviado: viernes 10 de febrero de 2017 11:08 a.m.
> Para: ISOC Internet Policy
> Asunto: Re: [Internet Policy] The Ecologist: TPP and TTIP are not dead: now they're called the Trade In Services Agreement
>
> Dear Richard,
>
> many thanks for your link and information distribution. But i see, the
> core of TISA is in great contradiction to some principles from D.Trump
> as president from USA.
>
> - the call to buy US products in the USA
> - the preference of production in the USA
> - the separation of commercial and investment banks (Glass-Steagall Act)
>
> I am sure, like all administrations before:
>
> The new gov-administration have no interest for Net Neutrality.
> The new gov-administration have no interest for secure private data. The
> new gov-administration have no interest for local/regional selfmade
> telecommunication.
> The new gov-administration have no interest for restrict in any form the
> state surveillance.
> The new gov-administration have no interest for restrict in any form the
> capaitalist business.
>
> But we see some contradictions to the old defined basics in TISA.
>
> many greetings, willi
>
>
>
> On 10/02/2017 05:18, Richard Hill wrote:
>> >From the leaked versions that I've seen of TISA, it does includes items that
>> impact on Internet governance.
>>
>> ===============
>>
>> http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2988629/tpp_and_ttip_are_not_
>> dead_now_theyre_called_the_trade_in_services_agreement.html
>>
>>
>> TPP and TTIP are not dead: now they're called the Trade In Services
>> Agreement
>>
>>
>> Pete Dolack
>>
>> 9th February 2017
>>
>>
>> If there's one good thing about Trump, it's that he has put an end to the
>> TPP and TTIP trade deals, right? Don't celebrate yet, writes Pete Dolack.
>> There's another 'trade deal' waiting in the wings, TISA, and negotiators
>> have been busy expanding its remit to include huge parts of TPP and TTIP,
>> while giving free rein to the global behemoths of internet and finance to
>> expand their monopolies.
>>
>>
>> Working people around the world scored a major victory in stopping the TPP,
>> at least in its current form. The activists who achieved this deserve much
>> credit. But there is far more to do. Capital never rests; nor can we.
>>
>> One can hear the cry ringing through the boardrooms of capital: "Free trade
>> is dead! Long live free trade!"
>>
>> Think the ideas behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the
>> Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
>> <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2016/05/04/goodbye-democracy-transat
>> lantic-partnership/>  (TTIP) or the so-called 'free trade' regime are buried
>> just because Trump scrapped them
>> <http://www.theecologist.org/Transatlantic%20Trade%20and%20Investment%20Part
>> nership> ? Sadly, no. Definitely, no.
>>
>> Some of the countries involved in negotiating the TPP seeking to find ways
>> to resurrect it in some new form - but that isn't the most distressing news.
>>
>> What's worse is the TPP remains alive in a new form with even worse rules.
>> Meet the Trade In Services Agreement, even more secret than the
>> Trans-Pacific Partnership. And more dangerous.
>>
>> The Trade In Services Agreement (TISA / TiSA), currently being negotiated
>> among 50 countries, if passed would:
>>
>> *     prohibit regulations on the financial industry;
>> *     eliminate laws to safeguard online or digital privacy;
>> *     render illegal any 'buy local' rules at any level of government;
>> *     effectively dismantle any public advantages to be derived from
>> state-owned enterprises; and
>> *     eliminate net neutrality.
>>
>> TISA negotiations began in April 2013 and have gone through 21 rounds.
>> Silence has been the rule for these talks, and we only know what's in it
>> because of leaks, earlier ones published by WikiLeaks and now a new cache
>> published January 29 <http://www.bilaterals.org/?+-tisa-+>  by
>> Bilaterals.org.
>>
>> The backup plan for the failure of TPP or TTIP
>>
>> Earlier draft versions of TISA's language would prohibit any restrictions
>> <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/no-regulation-trade-in-se
>> rvices-agreement/>  on the size, expansion or entry of financial companies
>> and a ban on new regulations, including a specific ban on any law that
>> separates commercial and investment banking, such as the equivalent of the
>> US Glass-Steagall Act.
>>
>> It would also ban any restrictions on the transfer of any data collected,
>> including across borders; place social security systems at risk of
>> privatization or elimination; and put an end to Internet privacy
>> <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/tisa-censorship-no-privac
>> y/>  and net neutrality. It hasn't gotten any more acceptable.
>>
>> TISA is the backup plan in case the TPP
>> <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/why-tpp-text-is-secret/>
>> and the TTIP don't come to fruition. Perhaps fearful that the recent
>> spotlight put on 'free trade' deals might derail TISA as it derailed TPP,
>> the governmental trade offices negotiating it have not announced the next
>> negotiating date. The closest toward any meaningful information found was
>> the Australian government's bland statement that
>> <http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/trade-in-services-agreement/news/Pages/
>> news.aspx>  the "Parties agreed to reconvene in 2017."
>>
>> The cover story for why TISA is being negotiated is that it would uphold the
>> right to hire the accountant or engineer of your choice, but in reality is
>> intended to enable the financial industry and Internet companies to run
>> roughshod over countries around the world.
>>
>> And while 'liberalization' of professional services is being promoted, the
>> definition of 'services' is being expanded in order to stretch the category
>> to encompass manufacturing. Deborah James of the Center for Economy and
>> Policy Research laid out the breathtaking scope
>> <https://popularresistance.org/there-is-still-one-big-corporate-trade-deal-t
>> hat-must-be-stopped/>  of this proposal:
>>
>> "Corporations no longer consider setting up a plant and producing goods to
>> be simply 'manufacturing goods.' This activity is now is broken down into
>> research and development services, design services, legal services, real
>> estate services, architecture services, engineering services, construction
>> services, energy services, employment contracting services, consulting
>> services, manufacturing services, adult education services, payroll
>> services, maintenance services, refuse disposal services, warehousing
>> services, data management services, telecommunications services, audiovisual
>> services, banking services, accounting services, insurance services,
>> transportation services, distribution services, marketing services, retail
>> services, postal and expedited delivery services, and after-sales servicing,
>> to name a few.
>>
>> "Going further, a shoe or watch that measures steps or sleep could be a
>> fitness monitoring service, not a good. A driverless car could be a
>> transport service, not an automobile. Google and Facebook could be
>> information services and communication services, respectively."
>>
>> Why are we kept in the dark?
>>
>> Before we get to the details of the text itself, let's take a quick look at
>> how the world's governments, on behalf of multi-national capital, are
>> letting their citizens know what they are up to. Or, to be more accurate,
>> what they are not telling you. Many governments have not bothered to update
>> their official pages extolling TISA in months.
>>
>> The European Union is negotiating TISA on behalf of its 28 member countries,
>> along with, among others, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New
>> Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Norway,
>> Switzerland, Pakistan and Turkey.
>>
>> In the United States, the new Trump administration has yet to say a word
>> about it. The Office of the US Trade Representative web site's page on TISA
>> <https://ustr.gov/TiSA>  still says "TiSA is part of the Obama
>> Administration's ongoing effort to create economic opportunity for U.S.
>> workers and businesses by expanding trade opportunities."
>>
>> Uh-huh. President Donald Trump is not against 'free trade' deals
>> <http://www.leftvoice.org/Free-Trade-Agreements-and-the-Dynamics-of-Capitali
>> sm> ; he simply claims he can do it better. The Trump administration has
>> issued blustery calls for "fair deals" and braggadocio puffing up Donald
>> Trump's supposed negotiating prowess. A typical White House passage
>> <https://www.whitehouse.gov/trade-deals-working-all-americans>  reads,
>>
>> "To carry out his strategy, the President is appointing the toughest and
>> smartest to his trade team, ensuring that Americans have the best
>> negotiators possible. For too long, trade deals have been negotiated by, and
>> for, members of the Washington establishment."
>>
>> More typical of the TISA negotiators is the latest report
>> <http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2016/november/tradoc_155095.pdf>
>> from the European Commission, which summarized the latest round, held last
>> November, this way: "Parties made good progress in working towards an agreed
>> text and finding pathways towards solving the most controversial outstanding
>> issues at both Chief Negotiators and Heads of Delegation levels."
>>
>> The Canadian government's last update
>> <http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/topics-
>> domaines/services/tisa-acs.aspx?lang=eng> is from last June and declares
>> "Parties conducted a stocktaking session to assess the level of progress on
>> all issues."
>>
>> Traveling across the Pacific brings no more useful information. Australia's
>> government offers this information-free update
>> <http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/trade-in-services-agreement/news/Pages/
>> news.aspx> : "Parties agreed to a comprehensive stocktake of the
>> negotiations, identifying progress made and areas which require ongoing
>> technical work."
>>
>> New Zealand's government can't even be bothered to provide updates, instead
>> offering only discredited, boilerplate public-relations puffery
>> <https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/free-trade-agreements/agreements-under-ne
>> gotiation/tisa/>  similar to other trade offices.
>>
>> TISA may be in trouble - but we can't afford to relax
>>
>> The one hint that TISA negotiations are experiencing difficulty that could
>> be found through an extensive online search is this passage in a US
>> Congressional Research Service report
>> <https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44354.pdf>  dated January 3, 2017:
>>
>> "Recognizing that outstanding issues remain and the U.S. position under a
>> new administration is unclear, the parties canceled the planned December
>> 2016 meeting but are meeting to determine how best to move forward in 2017."
>>
>> Given that the new administration is moving as fast as possible to eliminate
>> the tepid Dodd-Frank Act financial-industry reforms, it would seem TISA's
>> provisions to dismantle financial regulation globally would not be a problem
>> at all.
>>
>> But that these talks are not progressing at the present time does not mean
>> the world can relax. It took years of cross-border organizing and popular
>> education to stop the TPP, and this effort will have to replicated if TISA
>> is to be halted.
>>
>> The details are the devils already known
>>
>> Commentary accompanying Bilaterals.org's publication of several TISA
>> chapters stresses that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite its apparent
>> defeat, is nonetheless being used as the model
>> <http://www.bilaterals.org/?amidst-political-uncertainty-new>  for the Trade
>> In Services Agreement. Thus we are at risk of the TPP becoming the 'new
>> norm':
>>
>> "Several proposed texts from the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
>> agreement have been transferred to TiSA - including state-owned enterprises;
>> rights to hold data offshore (including financial data); e-commerce; and
>> prohibitions on performance requirements for foreign investors.
>>
>> "While these texts originated with the United States, they appear to be
>> supported by other parties to the TPP, even though those governments were
>> reluctant to agree to them in the TPP and will no longer be bound by that
>> agreement. That suggests the TPP may become the new norm even though it has
>> only been ratified in two of the 12 countries, and that was done on the
>> basis of U.S. participation that no longer applies.
>>
>> "TPP cannot be allowed to become the new 'default' position for these flawed
>> agreements."
>>
>> Some of the most extreme measures have been dropped (at least for now) and
>> much of the text is not agreed. Nonetheless, there is nothing to cheer
>> about, Bilaterals.org reports.
>>
>> "The effectiveness of opposition to TiSA has led governments to conclude
>> that they cannot sell some of the more extreme proposals, which have thus
>> been dropped from previous leaked texts. But the fetters on the rights and
>> responsibilities of governments to regulate in the interests of their
>> citizens from what remains would still go further than any single other
>> agreement.
>>
>> "There are no improvements on the inadequate protections for health,
>> environment, privacy, workers, human rights, or economic development. And
>> there is nothing to prevent developing countries becoming even more
>> vulnerable and dependent in an already unequal and unfair global economy."
>>
>> De-development in the poorest countries
>>
>> Hypocritically, TISA would prohibit developing countries from adopting
>> measures that countries like the United States used to facilitate its
>> industrial development when it was an emerging country in the 19th century.
>>
>> In an analysis for
>> <https://wikileaks.org/tisa/New-Provisions/analysis/Analysis-of-TiSA-Annex-o
>> n-New-Provisions.pdf> WikiLeaks, Sanya Reid Smith of the Third World
>> Network, an international coalition specializing in development issues,
>> wrote:
>>
>> "[T]he proposals in this text restrict the ability of developing countries
>> to use the development paths taken by many of the developed TISA countries.
>> Some experts call this developed countries 'kicking away the ladder' after
>> they have climbed up, to prevent developing countries from developing the
>> same way ...
>>
>> "In TISA, the USA is proposing restrictions on host countries being able to
>> require senior managers be citizens of the host country. Yet when it was a
>> capital importer, the USA had the opposite law: its 1885 contract labour law
>> prohibited the import of foreign workers, i.e. the USA required senior
>> managers (and all other staff) be Americans, which increased the chances of
>> skills being passed to locals."
>>
>> Letting banks decide what's good for you
>>
>> These proposals are more extreme than language in existing bilateral trade
>> agreements. Many of TISA's provisions are lifted from TPP, but some go
>> beyond the latter's already extreme proposals. For example, not even the TPP
>> contemplated the entire elimination of regulations of any kind against the
>> financial industry.
>>
>> Article 14 of TISA's annex on financial services, which had contained the
>> most explicit language prohibiting regulation, has been removed, but Article
>> 9 still contains language requiring no limitations beyond those applying to
>> domestic financial firms. In other words, a smaller country would be
>> required to allow a giant bank from a bigger country to take over its entire
>> banking system.
>>
>> Incredibly, regulations against financial derivatives yet to be invented
>> would be illegal. A Public Citizen analysis
>> <https://wikileaks.org/tisa/analysis/Analysis-of-20150415_Annex-on-Financial
>> -Services/Analysis-of-20150415_Annex-on-Financial-Services.pdf>  states:
>>
>> "TISA would require governments to allow any new financial products and
>> services - including ones not yet invented - to be sold within their
>> territories. The TISA Annex on Financial Services clearly states that TISA
>> governments 'shall permit' foreign-owned firms to introduce any new
>> financial product or service, so long as it does not require a new law or a
>> change to an existing law."
>>
>> As another example, the financial-services annex (in article 21) would
>> require that any government that offers financial products through its
>> postal service lessen the quality
>> <http://www.bilaterals.org/IMG/pdf/financial_services.pdf#21>  of its
>> products so that those are no better than what private corporations offer.
>>
>> Article 1 of the financial-services annex states that "activities forming
>> part of a statutory system of social security or public retirement plans"
>> are specifically covered by TISA, as are "activities conducted by a central
>> bank or monetary authority or by any other public entity in pursuit of
>> monetary or exchange-rate policies."
>>
>> That social security or other public retirement systems are covered is cause
>> for much alarm because they could be judged to be 'illegally competing' with
>> private financial enterprises. It is conceivable that central banks could be
>> constrained from actions intended to shore up economies during a future
>> financial crisis if banks decide such measures 'constrain' their massive
>> profiteering off the crisis.
>>
>> Freedom of information - strictly for the corporations
>>
>> Article 10 of the annex continues to explicitly ban restrictions on the
>> transfer <http://www.bilaterals.org/IMG/pdf/financial_services.pdf#12>  of
>> information in "electronic or other form" of any "financial service
>> supplier".
>>
>> In other words, EU laws guarding privacy that stop US-based Internet
>> companies from taking data outside the EU to circumvent those privacy laws
>> would be null and void. Laws instituting privacy protections would be
>> verboten before they could be enacted. These rules, if enacted, could also
>> provide a boon to companies like Uber whose modus operandi is to circumvent
>> local laws
>> <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/high-tech-exploitation/>
>> . The Bilaterals.org analysis accompanying the leaks notes
>> <http://www.bilaterals.org/?amidst-political-uncertainty-new> :
>>
>> "The main thrust of TiSA comes through the e-commerce, telecommunications,
>> financial services and localisation rules and countries' commitments to
>> allow unfettered cross-border supply of services.
>>
>> "Together they would empower the global platforms who hold big data, like
>> Google, without effective privacy protections, and tech companies like Uber,
>> who have become notorious for evading national regulation, paying minimal
>> tax and exploiting so-called self-employed workers. Given the backlash
>> against global deals for global corporations TiSA will simply add fuel to
>> the bonfire."
>>
>> Who interprets the rule is crucial
>>
>> The language of TISA, like all 'free trade' agreements, is dry and
>> legalistic. How these rules are interpreted is what ultimately matters.
>>
>> TISA contains standard language requiring arbitration by judges possessing
>> "requisite knowledge". That language means that the usual lineup of
>> corporate lawyers who represent corporations in these tribunals will switch
>> hats to sit in judgment. The tribunals used to settle these 'investor-state
>> disputes' are held in secret with no accountability and no appeal.
>>
>> The intention of 'free trade' agreements is to elevate corporations to the
>> level of governments. In reality, they raise corporations above the level of
>> governments because only 'investors' can sue; governments and people can't.
>>
>> 'Investors' can sue governments to overturn any law or regulation that they
>> claim will hurt profits or even potential future profits. On top of this, a
>> government ordinarily has to pay millions of dollars in costs even in the
>> rare instances when they win one of these cases.
>>
>> Each 'free trade' agreement has a key provision elevating corporations above
>> governments
>> <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/investor-dispute-mechanis
>> ms/>  that codifies the 'equal treatment' of business interests in
>> accordance with international law and enables corporations to sue over any
>> regulation or other government act that violates 'investor rights', which
>> means any regulation or law that might prevent the corporation from
>> extracting the maximum possible profit.
>>
>> Under these provisions, taxation and regulation constitute 'indirect
>> expropriation' mandating compensation - a reduction in the value of an asset
>> is sufficient to establish expropriation rather than a physical taking of
>> property as required under customary law.
>>
>> Tribunal decisions become precedents for further expansions of investor
>> 'rights' and thus constitute the 'evolving standard of investor rights'
>> required under 'free trade' agreements. TISA contains the usual passages
>> requiring 'equal treatment'.
>>
>> What it's really all about: deregulation and corporate empowerment
>>
>> At bottom, 'free trade' deals have little to do with trade and much to do
>> with imposing corporate wish lists through undemocratic means, including the
>> elimination of any meaningful regulations for labor, safety, health or the
>> environment. TISA is another route to imposing more of this agenda.
>>
>> And the TPP itself isn't necessarily dead - both Chile and New Zealand are
>> holding discussions with other TPP countries to salvage some of the deal.
>> Chile has invited TPP countries, plus China, to a March summit
>> <https://insidetrade.com/daily-news/chilean-official-hopes-upcoming-summit-w
>> ill-provide-avenue-tpp-deal-chinese-involvement>  and the New Zealand trade
>> minister is visiting
>> <https://insidetrade.com/daily-news/new-zealands-trade-minister-fact-finding
>> -trip-tpp-countries>  Australia, Japan, Mexico and Singapore.
>>
>> Working people around the world scored a major victory in stopping the TPP,
>> at least in its current form. The activists who achieved this deserve much
>> credit. But there is far more to do. Capital never rests; nor can we.
>>
>> Here we have class warfare in naked fashion, and there is no doubt on which
>> side the capitalist world's governments lie.
>>
>>
>>
>>   _____
>>
>>
>>
>> Pete Dolack is an activist, writer, poet and photographer, and writes on
>> Systemic Disorder <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/> . His book 'It's
>> Not Over: Lessons from the Socialist Experiment
>> <http://www.zero-books.net/books/its-not-over> ', a study of attempts to
>> create societies on a basis other than capitalism, was recently published by
>> Zero Books.
>>
>> This article was originally published on
>> <https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/?tag=trade-in-services-agreement>
>> Systemic Disorder.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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