The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: Human trafficking concerns

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"Corker Fears Politicization of Human Trafficking Report Over Questionable Upgrades," August 6, 2015.

On July 17, 2015, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent Secretary of State John Kerry a letter urging the State Department to keep Malaysia on the Tier 3 list in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) after rumors spread that Malaysia would be upgraded. The authors wrote, "An upgrade for Malaysia is certainly not merited by the facts we’ve seen. So we’re left to conclude that Malaysia’s upgrade, if reported correctly, has been driven by external considerations."

After the report was released, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused State Department officials of raising Malaysia's human trafficking rating from Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watch List in the 2015 TIP report in order to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which included a provision that a deal could not be entered into with countries assigned a Tier 3 rating. According to the TIP report, countries on the Tier 2 Watch List do not fully comply with minimum standards outlined in HR 3244 - the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, "but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards."

During the August 6, 2015, hearing, which examined the 2015 TIP report, Sarah Sewall, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights at the U.S. Department of State, explained that Malaysia's rating was increased "based upon an increased number of prosecutions for trafficking-related offenses."

In response, Sen. Bob Corker argued that in 2013 Malaysia convicted nine traffickers and only three in 2014. He said, "So the government convicted three traffickers for forced labor and one for passport retention, and our State Department, for that record, which is less than what they [Malaysia] did the year before,…raised their status. I don’t see how anybody could believe there was integrity in this process."

Kerry dismissed the idea that Malaysia's upgrade was politically motivated. He said, "I personally signed off on it. And I had zero conversation with anybody in the administration about the Trans-Pacific Partnership relative to this decision — zero. The reason I made this decision was based on the recommendation of my team, because Malaysia has passed additional legislation in 2014, they’ve consulted with civil society, they drafted amendments to Malaysia’s anti-trafficking law in order to allow the country’s flawed victim protection regime to change."

Democratic Senators Ben Cardin (Md.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) disagreed with Kerry's assessment and tied Malaysia's upgrade to the TPP in a series of statements.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement: "Reports that the 2015 TIP Report resulted in factually unwarranted upgrades for certain countries, most notably Malaysia, are deeply troubling and demand a meaningful response from the State Department. The credibility and integrity of the TIP Report can never be compromised. We owe it to the millions of men, women, and children around the world who suffer from the horrifying realities of modern slavery to maintain America’s leadership, reputation, and resolve in the fight against human trafficking."

Brown said, "Giving countries with clear evidence of human rights violations, like Malaysia, a front-row seat to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership is unconscionable."

DeLauro added, "Malaysia is being upgraded, at least in part, to ease passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership."

John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, also commented on Malaysia's upgrade, saying, "Nobody at the State Department could look at me with a straight face and lay out the steps Malaysia has taken to warrant an upgrade to Tier 2 on the watch list. Malaysia has done very, very little to combat this scourge. That’s why they were placed on Tier 3. They’ve done very little since being placed on Tier 3 to warrant an upgrade."

Trafficking in Persons Report

Each year the State Department releases the Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP). The report is "the U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking. It is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. Government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue."

Countries are given a rating based on the following criteria outlined in the TIP report:

“

TIER 1: The governments of countries that fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. TIER 2: The governments of countries that do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards. TIER 2 WATCH LIST: The government of countries that do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and for which: a) the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; b) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecution, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials; or c) the determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional steps over the next year. TIER 3: The governments of countries that do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

”

See also

• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: An overview
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: Legislation
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: Public opinion on TPP and T-TIP
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: Summary of the TPP
• 2016 presidential candidates on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: Opposition
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: Understanding trade terminology
• The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
• Currency manipulation
• Trade promotion authority (TPA)
• Trade adjustment assistance (TAA)
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)
• Michael Froman

External links

• Office of the United States Trade Representative, "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)"
• Office of the United States Trade Representative, "Outlines of TPP"