WikiLeaks Publishes Secret International Trade Agreement

schwit1 (797399) writes "The text of a 19-page, international trade agreement being drafted in secret was published by WikiLeaks as the transparency group's editor commemorated his two-year anniversary confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Fifty countries around the globe have already signed on to the Trade in Service Agreement, or TISA, including the United States, Australia and the European Union. Despite vast international ties, however, details about the deal have been negotiated behind closed-doors and largely ignored by the press. In a statement published by the group alongside the leaked draft this week, WikiLeaks said "proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets," and have participated in "a significant anti-transparency maneuver" by working secretly on a deal that covers more than 68 percent of world trade in services, according to the Swiss National Center for Competence in Research.

Man-in-the-Middle?

[Anna Merikin]

|(T)he US is particularly keen on boosting cross-border data flow, which would allow uninhibited exchange of personal and financial data.|

Perhaps the traffic between nodes will give the NSA some useful information about people's transactions to "Keep us safe." Or the US IRS about offshore deposits?

Signed On?

[jklovanc]

This is yet another salacious post to garner attention. Here are a few things wrong with the post.
1. It is impossible to sign on to an agreement that is still in negotiation.
2. It is not a secret agreement as it's existence is posted in many places [international.gc.ca] and some governments are asking for public consultation [international.gc.ca]. The final text will be made available a debated when, and if, the countries involved vote on it.
3. No international treaty is ever made public till the the final draft. Negotiators need to be free to negotiate.
4. Many of these agreements never get to final draft as agreement sometimes is never reached,
4. The agreement will not come into effect unless ratified by the duly elected governments of the countries involved. Until then no one has "signed on".

Perhaps the reason behind this post is that WikiLeaks is not trending enough.

Re:Not sure what the "secrecy" fuss is

[ganjadude]

"getting something accomplished" is not the job of the federal government. the role of the federal government is to enforce the rules of the constitution. Somewhere in the last 100 years the role of the government changed from uphold the constitution to bribe as many people as possible to bring as much federal money back to ones home district, and keep getting re-elected.

Re:The elephants are stomping on us again

[Citizen of Earth]

Gay marriage, abortion,

... CEO pay. It's a stupid and inconsequential wedge issue for leftists like gay marriage is for rightists — "Some people somewhere are consensually doing something that offends my sensitive sensibilities, so it has to stop even though it's a private matter that I have no part in and no business sticking my nose into!"

Sick Treaty

[Jim Sadler]

Considering that the US and Europe were slammed to the dirt by lack of business regulation and enforcement it seems reasonable to me that we insist on far tight regulation and enforcement and more severe penalties for breaches as well. In essence the government encourages crime by issuing penalties that are far less than the money gained by criminal, business, behaviors. GM is a huge example of that right now with the ignition switch murders. That is serious enough to seize the assets and sell of everything GM owns and put executives under the prison.