Last week, the State Department released its annual Trafficking in Persons Report. This report, among other things, classifies countries according to their efforts to halt the slave trade. There are now 32 countries in the State Department’s “Tier 2 watch list,” a list of those governments that are making efforts to comply with antislavery treaties but where compliance is still weak, which includes China, India and Russia. Another 16 countries are placed on the “Tier 3″ list, a list of those governments that are making little or no effort to halt the slave trade.

The State Department claims to have taken a global lead on combating the modern slave trade and much of the press coverage will implicitly praise our name and shame policy. What few people realize is that we rarely punish countries for failing to act. The law that authorizes the TIP report, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, also requires that the US government impose economic sanctions by blocking economic and military aid to tier three countries, unless national interests are at risk.

In September, President Bush will sign a memo outlining the sanctions that each country will face due to their status in the report. If history is any lesson, Bush will sign off on as many as half the tier three countries getting an exception from some or all the sanctions. Some are oil producers, like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, or key allies in Washington’s war on terror, like Uzbekistan. The President has historically exempted other countries, like Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela, from part of the sanctions.

National security provisions are important, especially during the war on terror. But the State department and the President need to do more than pressure and threaten small governments across the developing world about their compliance, many of whom are on the tier 2 list. We must hold are allies to an even higher standard, no matter our reliance on their oil or geographic position. The Bush administration should remember that governments that allow this scourge to thrive are unlikely to be reliable allies when it comes to other problems that concern the United States. The TIP report describes unspeakable crimes and human rights abuses and come September, the President should do more than pat himself on the back for publishing a report, and should take direct action against all of the countries who are doing nothing to alleviate this problem.