The trade minister, Andrew Robb, says Australia will not enter into a new global trade deal in services if it undermines the strength of the banking and financial services sector.

Robb was called on to clarify the government’s position after WikiLeaks published what appeared to be a leaked confidential text of the financial services annex of the proposed Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa).

The text presages more competition in, and deregulation of, the banking sector – and it points to uninhibited cross-border data flows of highly sensitive consumer information.

It says parties to the agreement should seek to eliminate or reduce the scope of “monopoly rights” in their financial services sectors; and should allow the temporary entry of skilled financial services personnel subject to domestic conditions to be spelled out in schedules of the agreement.

The deal would aim to improve market access for all parties, meaning potentially more foreign ownership of Australian banks, or more Australian ownership of foreign banks, if the parties agreed to wind back existing domestic ownership controls.

The text – which is dated April 2014 – says parties to the agreement should not “take measures that prevent transfers of information or processing of financial information, including transfers of data by electronic means, into and out of its territory” where such transfers are necessary to the conduct of a business.

Such a development would have significant privacy implications.

The agreement notes the rights of parties to take domestic prudential measures to protect investors, depositors and policyholders, and to ensure “the integrity and stability of … the financial system”.

The text also contains a non-specific dispute settlement clause – an increasingly contentious practice in trade pacts because, opponents of trade liberalisation argue, such clauses undermine national sovereignty by allowing the policy decisions of governments to be tested in the courts.

The text provides no information about specific carve-outs, exceptions or exclusions being sought by the various parties to the agreement.

But taken in the broad, the direction of the text raises some questions about how the proposed trade pact would fit with the current “root-and-branch” review of the financial services sector being currently undertaken by the former banking chief David Murray – and with domestic regulations, such as Australia’s “four pillars policy”.

Since 1990, the four pillars policy has banned mergers between the big Australian banks in order to safeguard competition in the local financial services market. Labor on Friday zeroed in on the potential implications of Tisa for the four pillars policy.

The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, said Labor had not yet read the text.

But he said the government needed to make clear that it would not remove the four pillars policy. “Let me just make very clear the Labor party's position on four pillars,” Bowen told reporters in Sydney.

“The Australian financial system was tested in 2008 and 2009 in the greatest financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. The Australian financial system passed the test and a big part of that success was the four pillars policy.

“Labor built the four pillars, Labor will defend the four pillars. The last thing the Australian banking system needs is less competition.”

In response to the apparent leak, the trade minister said on Friday that Australia would not be a party to an agreement which undermined its own interests. He also noted the negotiations had a way to run.

Robb declared the incident was just the latest instalment of “the reprehensible campaign being waged by anti-trade groups” to undermine trade liberalisation.

“Australia has a most enviable services sector which includes financial services, and through our trade negotiations we are looking to open up new opportunities and advance their interests, particularly in the growing markets of Asia,” the trade minister said.

“We are certainly not going to enter into any agreement that undermines our world-class domestic banking and financial services sector. Why would we?”

Robb’s office declined to address Bowen’s comments on the four pillars policy specifically.

Patricia Ranald, convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, said the main aim of the text was “to open up national economies to greater foreign investment in banking and financial systems, with no limitations on levels of foreign investment or numbers of investors, and minimal levels of national regulation.”

“If Australia wants to retain its ‘four pillars’ policy, which prevents Australian banks from foreign takeover, these would have to be listed as ‘non-conforming measures’ or exceptions to the agreement,” she said.

Australia is an active player in Tisa, along with the US and the European Union.

The process began under the previous Labor government. The pact is being pursued outside the World Trade Organisation by a group of pro-trade liberalisation countries with the idea that the final text be compatible with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gat).

The 23 parties to the agreement are Australia, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union (representing its 28 member states), Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Turkey and the US.

Australia chaired a round of Tisa negotiations in Geneva in April, which is the date that appears on WikiLeaks’ text.

Australia has a substantial economic interest in liberalising the global trade in services. The services sector comprises about 70% of domestic economic activity and 17% of exports, according to analysis by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Australia’s banking sector has also been strongly behind the process.

But Tisa is hugely unpopular globally with activists and groups that oppose trade liberalisation, and with trade unions. Unions have been particularly concerned that the deal, if concluded, will force a wave of privatisations of government services.

In April, the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association wrote to Robb requesting the publication of the full working text to address concerns from a range of groups that the proposed pact will have a profound effect on the provision of public health services.

On Friday, the Greens trade spokesman, Peter Whish-Wilson, said Tisa raised sovereignty questions. “The government is putting at risk our ability to better regulate our banking sector,” Whish-Wilson said. “Tisa may restrict future parliaments from implementing reforms that may be necessary to protect consumers and maintain stability.”