WikiLeaks: TISA to Block Other Deals Aiming to Boost Developing Economies

WikiLeaks reveals that the proposed 53-nation Trade in Services Agreement allows no room for favourable trade deals to help developing countries advance.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The proposed 53-nation Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) bypasses the World Trade Organization (WTO) and allows no room for favourable trade deals to help developing countries advance, documents released by WikiLeaks reveal.

“The parties shall ensure that contracts are awarded to the supplier… that has submitted the most advantageous tender or the tender with the lowest price, based solely on the evaluation criteria specified in the notice or the tender documentation,” the TISA Annex to the Agreement on Government Procurement said.

The government procurement section of the published TISA documents “makes the new risks from TISA to governments’ right to regulate in their national interest much clearer,” University of Auckland Law Professor Jane Kelsey wrote in a legal analysis of the document for WikiLeaks.

The terms of the treaty document would allow powerful multinational corporations in major industrial nations to “bypass other governments in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and rewrite its services agreement in the interests of their corporations,” Kelsey warned.

On Wednesday, WikiLeaks released the new set of TISA documents just five days before a new round of negotiations on the treaty is due to start.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organization founded in Iceland in 2006 to disseminate documents, photos and video of political or social significance.