LONDON: The U.S. allowed a temporarily work-around for trade to flow through Myanmar where sanctions would otherwise prevent it.
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, issued a general license Monday that authorizes, for six months, trade-related transactions that are “ordinarily incident” to exporting goods, technology or non-financial services to or from Myanmar that could trip sanctions wires, it said. Treasury stressed the license doesn’t allow any transactions to, from or on behalf of those under sanctions, nor does it change other prohibitions in the Myanmar sanctions program.
“We took this action in response to reports of slowing trade in and out of Burma,” said a Treasury spokeswoman, using the other name for the country.
“Supporting Burma’s economic development—including the encouragement of normal trade with non-sanctioned businesses in Burma—is a key U.S. foreign policy goal,” she said.
The move comes after banks had complained to OFAC that they couldn’t finance trade through the country’s main port terminal because it’s owned by a man called, in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables, the old military junta’s “top crony.”
Stephen Law was placed under sanctions in 2008, and his firm, Asia World Co., was targeted in February 2010. The firm, which has ties to everything in Myanmar from airports to hotels, has thrived while under sanctions, according to a Wall Street Journal report from August. Its subsidiary provides the most efficient way of getting goods into Myanmar by sea, AP reports. The company has said it hasn’t received special treatment from Myanmar’s military junta or from the government, and that it simply follows the law.
While not identifying the company by name, a U.S. Department of State press release on the license noted “reports of unintended interruptions of Burmese trade due to sanctions concerns” with a key port in Yangon. Calling the license “a technical fix,” the State Department said it maintains the integrity of the sanctions program, and it “remains committed to maintaining pressure” on those still under sanctions.
Washington began lifting sanctions on Myanmar in 2012, but it’s been a slow process. Risk & Compliance Journal reported last year that the State Department was telling Burmese companies how to get off the list. However, the new license is not a response to the recent election in Myanmar and it doesn’t signal a change in U.S. sanctions policy toward the country, the State Department stressed, noting its six-month window.
