A little-known free trade deal threatens to sound the death knell on public services — long before the controversial new US-EU TTIP agreement comes into effect.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) warned yesterday that shadowy bureaucrats and big business figures from Canada and Brussels have already finished behind-closed-doors talks on the separate “Ceta” deal.

TUC international head Owen Tudor said that once it is implemented, “most of the worries people have about TTIP will already have come to pass.”