“The United States is now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time”, Obama said as he sat alongside Suu Kyi in the Oval Office. “It’s the right thing to do”, Obama said after the meeting, calling the country’s ongoing transition to democracy a “good news story”.
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Washington has been seeking closer relations with a number of Asian countries, including Myanmar, India and Vietnam, in an effort to counter Beijing’s growing economic and military influence.
Myanmar cheered a U.S. promise to end sanctions on Thursday, with residents in its commercial capital clamouring for American brands while politicians and business moguls heralded a new era of transparency and trade.
Various governments and rights groups in the West, as well as the United Nations, have criticised Ms Suu Kyi’s administration for doing too little to alleviate the suffering of the Rohingya, a group of about one million Muslims living in western Myanmar, a lot of them stateless.
Obama stated that the United States is ready to lift the aforementioned sanctions “soon”, the lifting will be an incentive for companies to invest in the country in the future. US banks and companies have been hesitant to do business there in fear of running afoul of American restrictions. The biggest obstacle to US investment is the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals blacklist of individuals, he said. She invited a team led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, to begin investigating the plight of the Rohingya, a group of about 1 million Muslims living in dire conditions in western Myanmar. As the generals loosened their grip in recent years, the USA did likewise. But following the landslide victory of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party a year ago, the country is seen by many to have moved from an authoritarian state to one that is more democratic.
Of particular concern is the country’s infamous jade industry, dominated by former junta members, their associates, and the military holding company Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited. This contrasts starkly to Suu Kyi’s seemingly unequivocal statement to US Congress yesterday: “We think that the time has come to remove all of the sanctions that hurt us economically”.
Her party still appears uncomfortable debating the merits of decades of western sanctions or their long term effects on the political economy.
In November, Myanmar will be back on the list of poor and developing countries benefiting from GSP, which grants preferential tariff treatment to certain products and significant tariff reductions.
Myanmar was removed from GSP benefits in 1989 following pro-democracy uprisings a year earlier that were brutally suppressed by the ruling military junta.
However, human rights groups say there are compelling reasons for retaining sanctions.
President Obama said the lifting of some sanctions would happen “soon”, but did not give further details.
The US is working on increasing aids to Myanmar to help grow the economy.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said after the meeting with Obama that the administration was encouraged by Suu Ky’s comments on human rights.
“It has been interesting to watch the transition that she has made from an icon to a politician, a democratically elected leader of a country”, said Rhodes. So-called “smart sanctions” (US Treasury-sanctioned bans on business dealings with specific conglomerates and businessmen) are targeted in nature but operate more as blunt tools in practice, dampening overall US business appetite.
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Kyaw Thu and Mike Dorning contributed.
