Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s current Tier 3 ranking in a United States anti-human trafficking report may see it being excluded from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), The Huffington Post reported.

The American online news aggregator and blog said the US Senate had approved a bill that will fast-track trade agreements negotiated by the president — including the controversial TPPA — but provision of crackdowns on human trafficking remains.

It said the White House considers the clause a “deal-breaker” as it would force Malaysia out of the agreement.

The Huffington Post said Democratic senator Bob Menendez came up with the provision that would prevent Malaysia from participating in the agreement, but later settled with Republican leaders over “modified language” that essentially means Malaysia would be allowed to continue participating in the TPPA as long as there is progress on reducing its dependence on “slave labour”.

However, the modification was not included in the final Bill.

The US State Department’s 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report issued a statement on the Malaysian government’s poor efforts in fighting modern-day slavery, noting that there is ample evidence of forced labour and sex trafficking in the country.

This has seen Malaysia downgraded to Tier 3, which is the lowest possible ranking and in the same category as Zimbabwe, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

It was also reported that Malaysia would have been downgraded two years earlier, but a grace period was given to allow time to make the necessary improvements.

The Huffington Post also said US President Barack Obama may be caught in a tight spot by the human trafficking clause, but noted that the administration could do away with the “procedural hurdle” by upgrading Malaysia’s formal status on human trafficking.

However, it warned that this would undermine the integrity of a key US human rights initiative aimed at shaming “rogue regimes”.

Human rights activists in Malaysia and abroad had previously said Malaysia’s downgrade from Tier 2 to 3 was proof of the government’s lax law enforcement and lack of political will. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 25, 2015.

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