US President Obama meets with Burma’s State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
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The United States eased some sanctions against Myanmar this year to support political reform but maintained most restrictions with an eye toward penalizing those it views as hampering the democratically elected government.
Some major USA brands have already jumped into the frontier economy, but many have stayed away saying the sanctions make investment too expensive and risky.
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”.
President Obama announced his intention to terminate the “national emergency” order in respect to Burma -which has authorized sanctions since 1997-and said it would happen “soon”. Advisers to Suu Kyi signaled ahead of the meeting she would not support that type of sanctions relief given the military’s still-outsized role in governing her country.
U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday announced plans to end economic and financial sanctions against Myanmar, which have been in effect since a military coup two decades ago.
Obama said, “It is the right thing to do in order to ensure the people of Burma [now Myanmar] see the rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government”.
The official and aides spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of Obama’s formal announcement. But penalties meant to block the drug trade and to bar military trade with North Korea would still apply, as would a visa ban barring some former and current members of the military from traveling to the U.S.
She faces the challenge of guiding Myanmar’s relationship with the United States and neighboring China, which enjoyed a preferential relationship with the military government. He said greater US engagement would promote its ability to promote change.
But human rights groups say there are powerful reasons for retaining sanctions.
More than 100 ethnic Rohingya Muslims were killed there during sectarian rioting in 2012; thousands more tried to escape by boat to Malaysia or Thailand. Her qualification of lifting measures that “hurt us economically” leaves scope for retaining elements of United States legislation targeted at the military, on the grounds they have a minimal effect on the general economy.
The US will work alongside Southeast Asian geopolitical bloc (ASEAN) to address nonproliferation and countering drug trafficking, terrorism, and extremism in Myanmar through promoting the rule of law domestically, he added. The jade is mined in a region of northern Myanmar still plagued by civil conflict.
“I believe the President said in the coming days (sanctions would be lifted)”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during his daily news conference.
“It’s something that we continue to look at, because the goal of the sanctions regime was to support a democratic transition, and some of the sanctions even were tied to the treatment of Suu Kyi specifically”, Rhodes said. The company said it is “actively pursuing” deepwater opportunities in Myanmar. On the other hand, Suu Kyi is wary of losing what she still considers a powerful political bargaining chip against the military.
Sanctions were originally imposed because of human rights violations committed under Myanmar’s military rule, and were meant to “isolate Myanmar’s former military junta”, NPR reported. The US-ASEAN Business Council estimates 70% of Myanmar’s economy is still considered off-limits to American companies. The country will be back on the GSP programme on 13 November, US authorities said. No longer is Aung San Suu Kyi a prisoner in her own house, she’s now the head of the government.
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But sanctions have long presented a policy dilemma to the former opposition leader, who under house arrest was a leading advocate of punitive measures against the previous regime.
