Education International
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Calling themselves the ‘Really Good Friends of Services’, the parties to TISA are negotiating services independently of the GATS/WTO though they argue that they hope to inform them (Peng, 2013: 613). The negotiations formally began in March 2013, and a basic text had been agreed on by September of that year indicating which service markets participants were prepared to open and to what extent. As of November 2016 there have been 21 rounds of negotiation (EC, 2016). Who is in TISA and when did they join? As of August 2016 there are 23 negotiating parties. Australia, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Colombia, the EU (representing its 28 member states), Hong Kong China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Switzerland, Turkey and the United State were (along with Singapore, which left early in the negotiations) the original ‘Really Good Friends of Services’ coalition in mid-2012. Costa Rica, Israel, Iceland, Panama, Peru and Turkey joined in in late 2012 (Vincenti, 2012), Liechtenstein joined in 2013 (ICTSD, 2013), and Mauritius joined in 2015 (ICTSD, 2015). Paraguay and Uruguay had been involved in the negotiations but dropped out in September 2015 (Palmer, 2015). Other countries are likely to become part of the negotiations. China has asked to join and its application is supported by the EU (EC, 2016). Negotiating parties to the TISA are responsible for 70% of cross-border global trade in services (excluding that which is within the EU) and two thirds of the world trade in services (Peng, 2013: 614). Most TISA parties also have at least one PTA in services amongst themselves, making them ‘forum shoppers’ (Marchetti and Roy, 2013), as well as being included in other pluri-lateral negotiations. For example, the only TISA countries with whom the EU does not have existing agreements for trade in services are Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Israel, Pakistan and Turkey (EC, 2016). Who is driving the agreement? The negotiations were initiated by the US and Australia (Peng 2013:614); both countries we have argued have a huge stake in the global education services market. More broadly, the ‘Really Good Friends of Services’ are predominantly OECD countries. Historically, the inclusion of services in the WTO was a concession for developing countries (Gould, 2014: 9) and Gould argues that the “…TISA negotiations are essentially a replay of the negotiations that produced the GATS, but this time without the delegations [developing countries] present in the room that might have pushed back against the more extreme demands of the transnational services lobby” (Gould, 2014: 9). What are countries motivations for involvement? As with negotiations for the other trade agreements considered in this Report, the negotiation of TISA is, therefore, set in the context of wider global trade regimes and negotiations which are at various stages of development or stagnation. Gould (2014: 9) argues that TISA provides those negotiating it (with, crucially, OECD countries being heavily represented) the opportunity to develop an agreement that goes beyond anything that could be negotiated with a broader set of WTO members. Given their economic and political dominance, those negotiating TISA will then be able to pressure more countries to sign onto the agreement once the rules of engagement have been worked out and ultimately push for it to be incorporated into the WTO architecture. In this way, countries are motivated by the prospect of effectively circumventing trade negotiations