The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) is a proposed international trade treaty which aims to improve and expand worldwide trade in services such as banking, healthcare and transport. Initiated by the EU, United States and Australia, the TiSA is being negotiated in Geneva, Switzerland with 50 participants that represent 70% of the world's trade in services. Negotiations are currently on hold following the election of the new US President.
Consumers International has members in many of the countries participating in the TiSA negotiations. In October 2016, Consumers International and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), an international forum which champions the consumer perspective in transatlantic decision-making, wrote a co-signed letter (eng) to Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative and Cecilia Malmström, the EU Trade Commissioner. This called upon the US to make public its negotiating text, following the example of the European Commission, Norway and Switzerland. TACD, Consumers International and BEUC urged the United States and the EU to take the lead in facilitating such an initiative and went on to highlight the need to formalise dialogue with stakeholders – a small step to ensure stakeholders are given the chance to input into the negotiation process.
Consumers International joined world leaders at the World Economic Forum's Annual meeting in Davos, 21-24 January 2020, to ensure that the global consumer voice was represented in high-level discussions on privacy and digital rights, sustainable consumption, plastics recycling, the future of food, finance and energy.
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In this blog, our Advocacy manager Anna Glayzer reports back from last week's WTO Forum in Geneva and explores the unprecedented global impact that online shopping is having on the way we consume.
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