Thursday, September 17, 2015
Uruguay Shows the Way by Leaving
Secret Trade Deal
A strong coalition of trade unions, environmentalists and
farmers working together on an effective public campaign were able to take on
the interests of the world's biggest companies and win.
Thousands in Uruguay participated in protests against TISA
earlier this year. (Photo: Courtesy of Montecruz Foto/CC
BY 3.0)
Last week the Uruguayan government decided to end
its involvement in the secret negotiations of the Trade in Services
Agreement TISA, signifying an important victory in the global fight against bad
trade deals.
TISA is a radical new deal that aims to go far beyond current
trade rules and force States to further open their markets to foreign
corporations, privatize public services and reduce regulations. These measures
often mean job losses, less environmental protection, and less accessible
healthcare and education.
Uruguay has created a blueprint for how to stop this
corporate-driven agreement. It is time for other countries to
follow the lead and end TISA once and for all.
After months of intense pressure led by unions and other social
movements—including a general strike on the issue—the Uruguayan President
listened to public opinion and left the US-led trade agreement.
The
overwhelming majority of members of the ruling Frente Amplio party believe that
the deal would undermine the government's national development strategy and
therefore considered it “unadvisable to continue participating in the TISA
negotiations”.
The little-known TISA negotiations involve 52 nations, who
together comprise around two-thirds of the global economy: the United States,
European Union and 23 other countries, including Turkey, Mexico, Australia,
Pakistan, Taiwan and Chile. It relates to the 'services sector' of the economy,
which in the EU makes up approximately 75% of the total economic activity.
The agreement being negotiated aims to do away with
"domestic regulation" of services with a special focus on certain
sectors where free exploitation by corporations would increase at the expense
of public interest, such as: finance, telecommunications, internet and e-trade,
government procurement, transportation, energy services, postal services and
the so called "environmental services." For example, this means
prohibiting countries from adopting privacy laws that limit cross-border data
flows of sensitive information or require strong data protection.
Despite its wide ranging effects on every part of our economy,
TISA is negotiated in complete secret. The public will not know the full
details of the text for five years after the agreement comes into force or the
negotiations are otherwise closed. It is travesty of democracy that our elected
governments will not tell us the laws they are making. The only information
available about the agreement has been leaked by
Wikileaks.
TISA is driven by the US administration and big business who
promote it as a way 'to boost growth and productivity.' Yet as Jane
Kelsey of the University of Auckland explains, "the main goals of the
negotiations are to increase the commodification of services usually performed
by the State (such as education, health care, leisure, transportation, etc.),
to put more pressure to privatize public utilities and to dismantle the State’s
regulating capacity."
The TISA negotiations, together with the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP) act to further empower transnational corporations through
special rights and provisions. It is also an attempt to counter the
growing economic and geostrategic importance of the emerging BRICS bloc
(Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
Yet these trojan horse trade deals are not inevitable.
By leaving the TISA negotiations, Uruguay has created a
blueprint of how to beat these corporate-driven agreements. A strong
coalition of trade unions, environmentalists and farmers working together on an
effective public campaign were able to take on the interests of the world's
biggest companies and win.
Information and clear communication was key to the campaign. The
negotiation
texts released by WikiLeaks and assessments by
international experts helped to break the secrecy surrounding the
negotiations. Then when Uruguay entered the TISA negotiations in February
social movements were able to launch a public awareness campaign that gave rise
to ongoing public debate in the media.
The Stop TISA campaign was able to successfully lobby and engage
the government on the issue. It exposed the negative effects that Uruguay’s
participation in the trade deal would have on key government policies in health
and education, as well as the role of the State to address inequality.
For example, TISA attempts to transform healthcare into a
tradable commodity would "raise health care costs in developing countries
and lower quality in developed countries," according to Dr. Odile
Frank of Public Services International.
Building a strong coalition of social movements and non-profits
against TISA enabled a popular opposition to the agreement to grow
rapidly across diverse sections of society, from doctors to train drivers. The
Workers’ Trade Union Federation of Uruguay (PIT-CNT) played a crucial role in
organizing mass mobilization. Thousands marching in the streets and a general
strike against TISA increased pressure on the government and led it to walk
away from the deal.
Stopping TISA in its tracks is a huge victory for the Uruguayan
people and their fight for a more just and sustainable future. It is time for
all other countries involved in the negotiation to do the same and end this bad
trade deal.
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to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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