Malaysia not making the TPPA is a big deal

From the Malay Mail:

Malaysia’s dire record on people smuggling may be used by a US lawmaker to derail talks in the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), the Huffington Post reported.

While the White House is on the verge of securing the fast-track approval it needs to push ahead with the long-delayed free-trade deal, a US senator has succeeded in inserting a provision that would bar his country from entering agreements with countries officially viewed as engaging in slavery, which includes Malaysia.

The provision authored US Senator Robert Menendez — reportedly unhappy with attempts by the Obama administration to override his efforts to address human trafficking — would also effectively prevent the early conclusion of the TPPA in which Malaysia is one of the negotiating nations.

The insertion of Menendez’s provision means the US House of Representatives must now either amend the bill or pass it and subsequently negotiate with the Senate. But either solution means further delays to the Obama administration winning the approval it needs to bulldoze the TPPA through, before the country gear’s up next year’s presidential election.

The TPPA is a big deal.  We are an export oriented nation.  We need to export our products out.   Furthermore the TPPA is something that could help lower the blow of the effects of GST.  It is more of a necessity now than a luxury that Malaysia make the TPPA.

When people think of human trafficking, they think of slavery.  But a lot of the foreign workers are being put to work building things in Malaysia.  It's a fine line between what is considered human trafficking and foreign labour to do jobs people in the country don't want to do.   A lot of the workers are sending money home to their families in their home countries, thus are better off than before.

The major problem lies in the fact that Malaysia does not really want to create political problems with official immigration policies and have instead gone down the path of  lax immigration policies, which is more cost effective and faster to implement but with little oversight.  It's a sad state of affairs for Malaysia.