IUF, International Unions highlight the TISA threat to democracy, public services and food rights

The IUF, Public Services International (PSI) and Uni flagged the extreme dangers of the proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) at the WTO Public Forum in Geneva on October 1. Over 100 participants – many of them trade delegates – took part in the meeting.

“TISA” said PSI’s Daniel Bertossa, “will deregulate financial services, liberalise the public sector and restrict democracy in our countries.  Stephen DeMatteo of Uni warned that TISA “would export a failed model of postal liberalization to peoples around the world without their ever having a say or ever casting a vote.”

Privatization and deregulation undermine the right to food, a fundamental human right, by encouraging and enforcing the commercialisation and privatisation of water supply and distribution, warned Peter Rossman from the IUF. “Agriculture urgently needs rebuilding to become socially and environmentally sustainable; TISA and similar deals take us in the opposite direction by facilitating the corporate appropriation of public resources and closing policy space.”

The IUF presentation is available here.