KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — 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.

Further complicating matters is Chile saying that it will not continue with further discussions on the TPPA — said to be in its “final stages — until the US passes the bill for “fast-track” authority to approve the deal.

Also, US President Barack Obama’s second and final term ends next year.

“So it means, if nothing changes, Malaysia should not be in this agreement,” Senator Sherrod Brown was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post.

“And if the president relaxes or un-designates Malaysia as a tier 3 designation, it would be a tragedy. So either Congress changes it or the House changes it.”

Last year, Malaysia was relegated from Tier 2 to Tier 3 in the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons report, the lowest ranking, joining Thailand, The Gambia and Venezuela.

In the report, Tier 1 countries are those who meet anti-trafficking standards. Tier 2 do not but are making a significant effort to do so. Tier 3 countries do not meet the standards and not making significant effort to do so.

Tier 3 countries are open to sanction by the US government. A US law also includes a watch list, in which countries on Tier 2 for two years are downgraded to Tier 3 unless they receive presidential waivers, available for two additional years.

Malaysia is also currently facing a crisis along with neighbours Thailand and Indonesia, after a massive human smuggling network was exposed along the Malaysian-Thai border.

The aftermath of the crackdown then triggered a humanitarian emergency, when the smugglers abandoned thousands of their victims aboard boats off the east and west coasts of Malaysia, which in turn created a public relations disaster when Putrajaya at first refused to allow the refugees and migrants to land.

The TPPA is a free trade agreement that has been negotiated by the US, Malaysia and nine other nations as part of the larger Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership since 2010.

Critics continue to criticise the secrecy with which the deal is being negotiated, claiming that it would, among other things, undermine the sovereignty of signatory nations and make drugs more expensive in member countries.

Although initially only suspicions, these fears and more were later confirmed by chapters of the TPPA that were leaked by whistleblower group WikiLeaks.