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TiSA: (Super) Secret Trade Agreement That Will Usurp America’s Authority to Make Immigration Policy
Economic Policy Institute ^ | June 11, 2015 | Daniel Costa and Ron Hira

Posted on 06/12/2015 4:36:52 PM PDT by concernedcitizen76

Excerpt:

In the United States, this means the L-1 intra-company transferee, B-1 business visitor visa programs, and any other applicable visa programs could be used to permit temporary employees from abroad to work in the United States, and no economic needs tests (i.e., testing the labor market) could ever be imposed by Congress. To translate, that means that foreign firms would not be required to advertise jobs to U.S. workers, or to hire U.S. workers if they were equally or better qualified for job openings in their own country. (It should be noted that the L-1 is already restricted in this way, as a result of the United States’ commitments under the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATS).) These visa programs are already under-regulated and abused by employers, but since neither the L-1 nor the B-1 visa program is numerically limited by law, this means that potentially hundreds of thousands of workers could enter the United States every year to work in these 38 sectors.

This is worrying and problematic, not because there shouldn’t be any foreign competition from service-providing companies in the United States, but because the competitive advantage foreign companies will get from TiSA is the ability to provide cheaper services by importing much cheaper labor to supplant American workers. They’ll do this by paying their workers the much lower salaries they would earn in their home countries (as they often already do in the L-1 and B-1 visa programs), and the United States might even be prohibited in future from imposing minimum or prevailing wage standards (at present, neither the L-1 or B-1 visa program has a minimum or prevailing wage rule).

There is clear precedent for this. The multilateral GATS agreement, to which the United States is a party, includes limits on the U.S. government’s ability to change the rules on H-1B and L-1 guestworker visas. That’s why when Congress wants to raise visa fees, as they did in 2010, the Indian government cries foul and threatens to formally complain to the World Trade Organization. The U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore trade deals also included new guestworker programs similar to the H-1B and constraints on the U.S. government’s ability to set rules on L-1 intracompany transfers.

The TiSA draft annex on Movement of Natural Persons would also likely restrict the ability of the current and future administrations to continue some of the basic immigration procedures it currently follows, such as requiring an in-person interview with L-1 applicants. The draft treaty might even prohibit common sense legislative proposals that Congress has considered over the past few years, including minimum wage rules for companies seeking to hire guestworkers in the L-1 visa program. This is particularly disturbing since the L-1 visa program has been a primary vehicle to facilitate the offshoring of high wage jobs and for replacing American workers with cheaper guestworkers.

TiSA has been written in secret by and for major corporations that will benefit greatly if it becomes law. If the House of Representatives grants the Obama administration the fast-track trade promotion authority it seeks, the authority will be valid for six years, which means TiSA (like TPP) would also get an up-or-down vote in Congress without any amendments—making it very likely to pass and become law without the necessary democratic deliberations on immigration that such major changes should have. The leaked TiSA text makes it clear that contrary to the claims by proponents of fast-track trade promotion authority, the reality is that those voting for fast track are ceding key powers to make immigration law and policy to an unelected group of corporations and foreign governments.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Society
KEYWORDS: mysterymeat; obamatrade; tisa; tpp; tradeagreements; ttip
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To: concernedcitizen76

People don’t seem to realize what ‘globalization’ really is...It means that there is no more United States of America...

Arizona is equal with Guatemala...Michigan is seen as no more nor more less that Sonora, Mexico...

The central government is no longer Washington DC but likely a central world gov’t probably in Belgium...

Our standard of living will be on par with the nations of the world...Third world nations...


21 posted on 06/12/2015 5:33:15 PM PDT by Iscool
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Their analysis of the Wikileaks 17 section releast happens to jibe with what Breitbart and Jeff Sessions are saying but in more detail. That’s what caught my eye. No one has a monopoly on the truth.


22 posted on 06/12/2015 5:38:56 PM PDT by concernedcitizen76 (Term limits. Repeal the 16th and 17th amendments. Sunset bureaucracies.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why is 0bama seemingly breaking from the unions?


23 posted on 06/12/2015 5:50:13 PM PDT by Zeneta (Thoughts in time and out of season.)
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To: concernedcitizen76

So if the USSR-era Pravda or Tass had an article that dovetailed with your views, why not post it? Or the Communist Party-USA, Church of Satan or NAMBLA?


24 posted on 06/12/2015 5:54:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: wolfman23601

Obama is going to be president for just 18 more months. TPA is six-year legislation. If we want the next president (hopefully a Republican) to be able to negotiate free-trade agreements

Fine, then let’s wait until then.


25 posted on 06/12/2015 5:58:22 PM PDT by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
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To: concernedcitizen76

And that’s another thing. You don’t think that WikiLeaks has an agenda? How do you know that their “leaks” are real and totally accurate? Because you “trust” them? Do you think that PFC Bradley “Chelsea” Manning is a hero?


26 posted on 06/12/2015 5:59:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

No member of Congress or any else closely involved with TPA has disputed the Wikileaks releases as not the Real McCoy.
Embattled supporters of TPA would have everything to gain if they could make that claim, but they don’t. I would think Cruz, who has read the TPP, would be first in line to say it ain’t so.

Thank for your service to our beloved country. I shan’t engage in straw man arguments or ad hominem with you.


27 posted on 06/12/2015 6:22:06 PM PDT by concernedcitizen76 (Term limits. Repeal the 16th and 17th amendments. Sunset bureaucracies.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Did PFC Bradley “Chelsea” Manning and WikiLeaks vote also today? Those Bastards!


28 posted on 06/12/2015 6:28:29 PM PDT by lostboy61 (Lock and Load and stand your ground!.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yeah I don’t know why people seem to have forgotten that Wikileaks is no friend of conservatism. Its odd how they never seem to do any real damage to the left.


29 posted on 06/12/2015 6:55:17 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad political fact. Most people prefer a popular lie over an unpopular fact.)
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To: concernedcitizen76
I have said it before and I will say it again - especially in the wake of this boondoggle which threatens our national sovereignty.

I suspect that Obama sees the US Presidency as a mere stepping tone to a GLOBAL catbird seat that he covets.

Why else would he be trying to unilaterally implement policies that will only serve to drag this country down to the level of a third world socialist craphole???

Why was the Nobel Peace Prize the prologue to his two terms as POTUS and not its epilogue???

30 posted on 06/12/2015 7:37:18 PM PDT by Sons of Union Vets (Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Thanks for that. I appreciate the information.


31 posted on 06/14/2015 9:41:57 AM PDT by rockinqsranch ((Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will. They ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.))
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