Seven TPP Countries Don't Meet Trafficking Standards
July 1, 2016
By Maeve Allsup, Bloomberg Bureau of National Affairs
July 1, 0216
Seven countries that are parties to a trans-Pacific trade deal don't meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, information in a State Department report shows.
The Trafficking in Persons Report for 2016 placed Singapore, Brunei, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico and Japan in Tier 2, meaning that they don't meet minimum standards but are attempting to improve the situation. Malaysia was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List, meaning it doesn't meet minimum standards and hasn't shown increased effort over last year in attempting to reach them.
The countries fail to meet the standards for eliminating human trafficking as outlined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the report showed.
All seven are parties to the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was formally signed in February.
Members of Congress have voiced concerns about human rights issues within TPP member nations as early as 2014, with many saying the TPP shouldn't be activated until all member countries make acceptable reforms.
Congressional Concerns
Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam have been at the center of criticism about the partnership, with both Democrats and Republicans calling on the administration to ensure human rights are a top priority in the agreement.
A March 22 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman revealed opposition to the agreement in the Senate. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and 18 Democratic senators requested that the legislation implementing the trade deal not be submitted until Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei make human rights reforms (57 ITD, 3/24/16).
These letters were followed by a June 9 document signed by five House Appropriations Committee members claiming that the TPP doesn't do enough to protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and requesting that the partnership be renegotiated to give this protection.
The letter urged President Barack Obama to “use the opportunity presented by the United States’ inclusion in the Trans-Pacific Partnership to explicitly protect LGBT individuals in the agreement's participating countries,” and expressed specific concern in regards to the treatment of LGBT individuals in Malaysia and Brunei.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said TPP must include protections for the LGBT community. “You can only have free trade among free people,” Kaptur told Bloomberg BNA by phone, stating that negotiating with countries such as Brunei and Malaysia is in “direct conflict of our democratic values.”
Political Motivations?
The 2015 Trafficking in Person's report reclassified Malaysia as a Tier 2 Watch List, up from Tier 3 in 2014. It was moved up based on legislation that was still pending at the end of the reporting period.
The move sparked questions from lawmakers and nongovernmental organizations, and members of Congress requested an investigation of the upgrade (133 ITD, 7/13/15).
“Last year, the administration upgraded Malaysia, not based on any progress that country made in addressing this serious problem, but because they wanted to jam the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal through Congress using special fast track rules,” Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said in a statement June 30.
Trade promotion authority (or “fast-track”) legislation signed by President Obama June 29, which sets U.S. negotiating objectives for trade deals, contains a provision that would revoke fast-track authority for any deal that includes a country ranked as Tier 3 in the report. Countries on the Tier 3 list not only fail to meet the standards to eliminate human trafficking, they haven't made a serious effort to do so.
“Malaysia's upgrade last year was unjustified then, and placement on the Tier 2 Watch List remains unjustified today,” said Kristen Abrams, acting director of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking in a June 30 statement.
“More than a year after the discovery of mass graves of trafficking victims along the Malaysia-Thailand border, there is little evidence that Malaysia has taken anything more than meager steps to address its troublesome human trafficking situation,” Abrams said.
Malaysia initiated fewer trafficking investigations and prosecutions compared to last year, the report said, but increased the number of human trafficking-related convictions from three to seven.
The five remaining TPP members—New Zealand, Australia, the U.S., Chile and Canada—were all classified in Tier 1.
The State Department's “Trafficking in Persons Report: June 2016” is available at https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258876.pdf.