Secret WTO Trade Deal Threatens Internet Freedom, New Leak Reveals

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/17/secret-wto-trade-deal-threatens-internet-freedom-new-leak-reveals

Newly exposed text of Trade in Services Agreement raises alarm of analysts
bySarah Lazare, staff writer

Published on
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
byCommon Dreams

Global governments are secretly negotiating a little-known mega trade deal that poses a threat to internet freedoms and boon to corporate interests, analysts warned Wednesday, citing a just-leaked U.S. proposal.

The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), under discussion between a 50-country subset of World Trade Organization members for nearly two years, is so secretive that its talks aren't even announced to the public, making it even more shadowy than the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Kept in the dark about the deal, the global public will be hugely impacted by its provisions.

"What these closed-door negotiations do is cement in place rules for global governance—rules that affect a whole host of issues that aren't about trade at all, such as privacy, financial stability and much more," Melinda St. Louis, International Campaigns Director for Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, told Common Dreams.

"There is extreme industry influence in this closed-door trade negotiation process," St. Louis explained. "On the U.S. side there are more than 500 corporate advisers who have access to these texts while the public and many elected officials are locked out."

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