The 'brother' trade agreement to TTP and TTIP, it's probably the worst of all of them.
View the leaks and the announcement here on Wikileaks
You can read the:
- TiSA Core Text
- TiSA Institutional and dispute settlement provisions
- TiSA Annex on Telecommunication
- TiSA Transparency Chapter
- TiSA Annex on Movement of Natural Persons
- ANALYSIS on Core Text
Here's the biggest three implications:
1. Governments sign away their right to give preferences to local providers of services - meaning that a globally controlled media will exist (and serve the neo-liberal agenda)
2. It restricts the ability of member states to use any law or regulation to challenge Multi-National Corps. (a corporation could buy a nation's water rights and not be sued)
3. Privacy protections are completely 'illusory' - TiSA guarentees that a country cannot determine how much sensitive data a private entity can contain on that country's citizens or corporations.
The entire agreement is structured to give supreme power to multinational corps. Where the TPP allows MNs to sue governments for "damages" from laws, TiSA means that you aren't even allowed to cite consumer protection laws in courts, period.
Moreover, it gets deeper.
Any business setting up shop in a foreign country is allowed to bring in unlimited amounts of cash, and cannot be restricted in terms of how many shops it sets up, nor its output/quantity. No municipality can establish laws that treat these foreign businesses different to local businesses (so, the foreign company can't be charged higher tax rates, for example).
Not even MUNICIPALITIES (Cities) can pass laws excluding certain businesses, or levying taxes on certain businesses. So say that Comcast has a monopoly on your municipal fiber lines. Comcast already has passed laws giving them the exclusionary license to be the ONLY provider. Now, under TiSA, cities not just in the US, but abroad, could not pass laws limiting a corporation from holding a monopoly.
I don't care if you're a socialist or a libertarian - laws like this are only good for individuals who own government sponsored monopolies. Please find a way to fight these destructive agreements from happening, although I personally believe that we're all doomed.
Thanks for posting this. I haven't spent much time on WikiLeaks, and there's more analysis and context here than I was expecting.
The first response is, where you can, move your money. The big banks are gearing up for another round of irrational exuberance.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickwwatson/2016/09/15/wells-fargo-scandal-shows-next-bank-crisis-coming/#7f3e20bc69ec
I've been with a nice boring credit union for years, and have no complaints. But there are also lots of smaller banks out there, who still have some idea of who they work for.
Credit unions are great!