As employers of foreign firms seem to be given a free pass to pay them non-prevailing wages, overseas, into their bank accounts there, - and its my impression so far that India does not have a national Social Security system of their own yet!- then they should not be pressing international organizations to be included in our Social Security system. Frankly, we should not be engaged in this cozy relationship with the Modi government, which is not a democratic one.
But to get back on point, either the guest workers are employees working and living in the US or they are independent contractors just here to do a job and not. The WTO cant pick and choose what portions of our (US) laws to obey and which to undermine with this huge loophole. The whole thing stinks of some kind of a private backroom deal . One which allows the various groups to pretend they care about their own people, while laughing at them behind their backs.
Indeed, there were many rumors of such a deal in the Indian press in the weeks after the Nairobi event last year.
FTAs that push this divisive ("and conquer") agenda have
the effect of making a race to the bottom come faster, creating
"democracy in name only"..
India should offer Social Security to their own workers. So they would not feel so compelled to work elsewhere.
Yes, thats right, Anticipating substantial numbers of workers
earning significant amounts of a benefit that it's not even clear
India offers its own workers, for periods up to several years at a
time, India is now also proposing that this Trade-Facilitation
Agreement encourage or perhaps force other countries like the US to
make our SS benefits portable to include the wages of its own workers
while present in another country so they could be repatriated across
borders.
This may have unanticipated effects in the US,
caused by the (long time) failure of four successive Administrations
and a new one as well, to inform the country about certain
GATS rules that require "public services" never also
involve money, and if they are, they must be subjected to the GATS
(and TISA, and other FTAs rules)- due to the narrow, often
misunderstood definition reproduced below.
"For the purposes of this Agreement"
(b) 'services' includes any service in any sector except services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority;
(c) 'a service supplied in the exercise of governmental authority' means any service which is supplied neither on a commercial basis, nor in competition with one or more service suppliers."
.
Currently Social Security enjoys an exemption from GATS (mandatory incremental privatization) rules because it is completely non-commercial (not monetized, like health care. and education have become); however, that exemption clearly depends on Social Security maintaining its status as a defined benefit and the administration of it as well as its goal being non-commercial.
it clearly would lose that exemption if it becomes a for-interest investment instrument unless some effort was made to gain a permanent carve out now before the TISA talks are completed. Such a carve out is also urgently needed to preserve needed policy space in both the almost done TISA and the existing GATS for both health-care insurance and higher education.
The issue is so important it really deserves a series of articles of its own.
Additional information on how WTO currently treats financial
services like banking and social security if it becomes a commercial
services/commodity.
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