# (international) Trade in Services Agreement **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 30, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-trade-in-services-agreement/736211 "2015-10-30T22:51:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-trade-in-services-agreement/736211/1 "2015-10-30T22:51:25Z")
There is another trade treaty in the negotiation stage, affecting services. Of course, left-wing sources are depicting it as evil. [New Respublik projects all manner of abuses](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121967/whats-really-going-trade-services-agreement) possible/likely under the terms of the very secret treaty, including restrictions on worker safety laws, limitations on hospital staffing guidelines and freezing regulations on the financial sector. Their analysis concludes that the overall effect of TiSA would be to hand control of the world over to a few multinational corporations. Not surprisingly, the [European Commission’s Q&A page](http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa/questions-and-answers/) informs us that it is really not as bad as all that, TiSA will be a _good_ thing. All those claims by the detractors are way overblown. Meanwhile, [EFF has some analysis](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/tisa-yet-another-leaked-treaty-youve-never-heard-makes-secret-rules-internet) that is a bit disturbing: - … The agreement would also prohibit countries from enacting free and open source software mandates. Although “software used for critical infrastructure” is already carved out from this prohibition (and so is software that is not “mass market software”, whatever that means), there are other circumstances in which a country might legitimately require suppliers to disclose their source code… TISA also includes a prohibition on laws that require service providers to host data locally, which some countries have used to protect sensitive personal information, such as health data, from being snooped upon on foreign soil. There are arguments for and against such laws, and it is inappropriate that a secretive international agreement such as TISA should preempt these important debates.\* Open source software and individual privacy are things that really ought to be protected. Any treaty that encroaches on these areas should not, IMHO, be codified. Anyone care to read through the [TiSA draft at wikileaks](https://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/) and explain how this trade deal, which disempowers nations in favor of capitalists, will be a net benefit? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-trade-in-services-agreement/736211/2 "2015-10-31T00:12:48Z")
I haven’t read it yet, but any time your government wants to keep a law a secret, it’s probably because they’re trying to fuck you over. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-trade-in-services-agreement/736211/3 "2015-11-03T22:07:31Z")
Why should I care about not-really-democratically-accountable governments ceding authority to not-democratically-accountable “capitalists”?