TPP Partner Nation: Dozens of graves, trafficking camps found in Malaysia

[cali]

and then there's Brunei and Vietnam. But President Obama doesn't want to put anything in TPA about reducing trafficking or slave labor. Heck, that can be handled outside trade agreements in the future. Or something. And if you're going to argue that this shows the Malaysian authorities are doing something probably because of the TPP, these stories pop up from time to time.


Malaysian authorities have uncovered 139 graves of victims caught up in the human trafficking trade in forests close to the Thai border, the country's national police chief said Monday.

Khalid Abu Bakar said that each grave, near the town of Wang Kelian, may contain the remains of more than one individual, according to Bernama, the Malaysian state news agency. He added

&quot Authorities) found 139 suspected graves. They are not sure how many bodies are inside each grave," he told reporters at a press conference.

The bodies are expected to be exhumed Monday. He added that police found 28 illegal camps -- the largest of which may have contained up to 300 migrants.

Southeast Asia nations are facing an humanitarian crisis, as thousands of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar take to the sea on boats, hoping to settle elsewhere in the region.

<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/25/asia/bangladesh-pm-punish-migrants/

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Just once I'd like to do a 'trade deal' wherein the number one requirement was that

all recipients matched each other's minimum (living) wages, such that if one country raised national minimum wages, the other countries had to do likewise or drop out of the trade deal. Rather than dealing with countries that offer labour at 50 cents an hour, we should all be dealing with nations with $15 minimum wages or higher. Slap giant ass tariffs on imports from countries whose workers are paid less.

[cali]

2. I don't. I favor parity or near parity in purchasing power.

$15 an hour in Vietnam is a whole other ball of wax in Vietnam than it is in the U.S.- so is 7.25 for that matter. What I want to see, isn't so much about minimum wage as it is about labor rights.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. If we sync wage levels, purchasing power will roughly sync up too.

Because the countries with newer higher wages will be hit with inflation, and their costs of living will rise to match.

[cali]

5. I don't think that makes sense at all. Radically remaking a country virtually overnight

if fraught with all kinds of potential and real dangers. Imposing a minimum wage equal to that in the U.S. or Canada is doing just that- in any case, it's not a realistic goal. What is more realistic is giving labor real rights and the attendant power that comes with such rights.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. Well, first off, if you go back to my original post...

the point was that our trade deals should be with countries we're already basically at parity with in terms of wage levels, and then keeping ourselves more in sync in terms of how workers are paid, so that there is no advantage in using labour from any particular country. Not that we should be making trade deals with countries who should be 'radically remaking themselves virtually overnight'. Countries that pay 50 cents an hour would have to raise themselves up (at whatever speed they're comfortable with) to get to the point where they pay more in order to take part in those trade deals.

[HereSince1628]

8. Unfortunately, the name of the game is exploitation of asymmetries.

The guiding principle remains simple: buy lower sell higher.

Asymmetries greatly facilitate that.

To compete the US needs greater expansion of its own production asymmetries ... these things will come by employers externalizing yet more costs and by creating feed-back loops that 'recapture' leaking value from wages and benefits.

[pampango]

9. That would be an argument for the trade agreement with Europe and a trimmed down TPP with

just Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore ($80,000 per capita) and maybe Brunei ($50,000) in it. Chile might be close to qualifying ($22,000) but Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico and Peru would definitely be out.

If you just use the legal minimum wage as a standard you get into questions of which jobs it covers and which it does not and how well it is enforced. Which of course then gets into national sovereignty questions like "New Zealand, your minimum wage is quite high but it does not apply to all workers and your enforcement is not as good as it should be. You are out." Who gets to make that decision? Each country on it own? We really don't need a new 'trade deal' for that.

[Enthusiast]

3. We have had about a belly full of these fucking trade deals.

[Katashi_itto]

7. Just the sort of vacation spot for Republicans to enjoy