China was spared the worst rating in the State Department’s annual report on human trafficking thanks to the efforts of political appointees.
Career experts working on the paper recommended that the largest exporter of commodities to the US be downgraded to “Tier 3,” but they were ignored by “senior American diplomats,” according to a report published Monday night by Reuters.
The analysis was one of fourteen on “strategically important countries” influenced by administration officials, the wire service noted.
While disputes are common between the nominally independent Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and partisan staffers, the former only prevailed this year in three disagreements. Reuters called it “the worst ratio in the 15 year history of the unit.”
“The number of rejected recommendations suggests a degree of intervention not previously known by diplomats in a report that can lead to sanctions and is the basis for many countries’ anti-trafficking policies,” it noted. “This year, local embassies and other constituencies within the department were able to block some of the toughest grades.”
The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficing in Persons—called J/TIP in American bureaucratic parlance, after the annual report—had sought to rebuke China for reneging on commitments to ban “re-education through labor” and protect trafficking victims from North Korea. The move would have put Beijing on par with the hermetic dictatorship on the Korean Peninsula.
Reuters said that political considerations also saw Malaysia, Cuba, Uzbekistan, India, and Mexico receive higher rankings than those J/TIP experts had called for.
Tier 3 ratings can result in restrictions on aid from the US and multilateral financial institutions, although there are exemptions to those prohibitions.
“The real power is its ability to embarrass countries into action,” Reuters noted, adding that the report has spurred anti-trafficking initiatives in Switzerland and the Dominican Republic.
This year, the report has taken on added significance. When Congress in June granted President Obama trade promotion authority, it stipulated that negotiations with Tier 3 countries could not be fast-tracked. Malaysia is a party to the ongoing, almost-completed Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Cuba’s improved rating, too, received scrutiny, in the wake of the historic normalization of relations between Washington and Havana.
The State Department told Reuters that the report is not politicized, and last Monday, Sarah Sewell, the undersecretary overseeing J/TIP, specifically said, in response to media inquiries, that the Malaysia upgrade was not influenced by TPP negotiations.
She did note, however, while introducing the report, that it “works to connect trafficking concerns with broader foreign policy goals.”
The yearly investigation itself concluded that Malaysia didn’t meet “the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” State granted the improved rating based on what it described as Kuala Lumpur’s “significant efforts.”
