Obama, seated beside Suu Kyi in the Oval Office, said that, as a result of her country’s “remarkable social and political transformation”, he was “now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed”.
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Myanmar’s military stepped back from direct control of the country in 2011 after 49 years in power, but maintains a commanding role in politics, controlling 25 percent of seats in parliament and leading three key ministries. Global Witness said Tuesday that US industry lobbying to roll back sanctions before critical reforms have kicked in risks undoing the country’s fragile progress to democracy.
“Obama and Suu Kyi just took important tools out of their collective tool kit for dealing with the Burmese military, and threw them into the garbage”, said John Sifton, deputy Washington director for Human Rights Watch. “If you had predicted that five years ago that Aung San Suu Kyi would now be here sitting as the duly elected representative of her country, many people would have been skeptical”. As recently as last month, the National League for Democracy rejected a proposal in Myanmar’s lower house calling for the United States to lift sanctions.
In public there will be lofty rhetoric about freedom, peace and transition.
The White House is keen to help the country’s economy and Suu Kyi’s administration – which is managing a hard transition from military-run pariah to full-fledged democracy.
In November, when Suu Kyi was elected to her post, the United States removed certain government-run businesses and some banks from a blacklist in an attempt to jump-start trade.
The veteran campaigner must tackle all those problems while keeping an eye on generals who may have second thoughts about reform.
Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized what he described as Suu Kyi’s “dismissive” reaction to concerns he had raised about her country’s record on human trafficking.
Tens of thousands of stateless Rohingya have spent the past four years trapped in bleak displacement camps with limited access to health care and other basic services.
The U.S. first imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar in 1990 in an attempt to weaken the then-military regime and their associated business cronies.
Critics, however, slammed the lifting of sanctions as they say it will perpetuate military violations, Reuters reported.
The sanctions now ban U.S. imports of jadeite. He also committed to reinstating tariff benefits for Myanmar imports under the Generalised System of Preferences.
And Ben Rhodes, a top adviser to Obama, told Michele that the US hoped to strike a delicate balance as it changed its policy on sanctions against Myanmar.
“It is the right thing to do to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards for a new way of doing business”.
But it could also weaken USA leverage and perhaps let the military off the hook.
In 2012, the Obama administration began to ease some financial and investment sanctions following political reforms, according to the Treasury Department.
For now the White House is happy to follow Suu Kyi’s lead.
Nevertheless, behind the scenes, Suu Kyi may still be advocating for making the removal of the last vestiges of the U.S. sanctions regime conditional on the military’s willingness to reform the 2008 constitution, which gives the army control of several key ministries and one quarter of the seats in parliament.
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Inle Advisory Group, a consulting firm for prospective U.S. investors, said on Wednesday that the National League for Democracy-led government was working to promote transparency and anti-corruption in the sector, citing the suspension of jade mining permits earlier this year.
