Referring to the transition of Burma to elections, Obama said the new government is giving voice to the hopes and dreams to new generation of Burmese people.
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Obama sets timetable to lift Myanmar sanctionsThe U.S. plans to lift economic sanctions against Myanmar, but trade with the country’s military will still be restricted.
The Obama administration moved Wednesday to lift longstanding USA trade sanctions on Burma in another step toward the normalizing of relations between the two nations. But the military still retains major political and economic interests, and some rights groups said the USA should continue applying pressure on Myanmar to change.
In May, the United States lifted some of the sanctions on Myanmar to show support for the country’s political reforms and economic growth and to facilitate trade between the two sides.
She said that USA sanctions helped drive the country’s military junta to surrender power, but that the time had come to lift them.
Khin Maung Nyo, however, said it is impossible to single out Myanmar military interests without making the entire country suffer. The biggest obstacle to USA investment is the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals blacklist of individuals, he said.
The move eased restrictions on Myanmar’s financial institutions, allowed certain transactions related to U.S. individuals living in the country, and removed seven state-owned enterprises and three state-owned banks from the USA blacklist. The military elite, US -sanctioned drug lords and crony companies have huge stakes in the economy, especially in the jade trade, which is worth almost half Myanmar’s economic output. In July, Derek Mitchell became the first US ambassador to Myanmar in 22 years.
(AP Photo/Thein Zaw). A man arranges local newspapers fronting photos of U.S. President Barack Obama and Myanmar’s State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi at his roadside shop, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016, in Yangon, Myanmar.
The State Department said many constraints would still remain in place, including a long-standing arms ban and barring visas for military leaders.
Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who spent years under house arrest, is barred from running for president under the terms of the country’s military-penned constitution.
USA companies are prohibited from doing business with these companies which are on the White House blacklist.
Ms Suu Kyi concurred it was time to remove all the sanctions which had hurt the economy in Burma. 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.
The administration relaxed bank sanctions on Myanmar in May.
Suu Kyi will speak on her government’s priorities at a dinner Thursday organized by U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. -ASEAN Business Council – a group that supports American business ties with Southeast Asia.
The White House notified Congress on Wednesday it was offering preferential trade benefits to Myanmar that were suspended in 1989, a year after the bloody crackdown on democracy protesters by the military.
Although some curbs on ties to the military and some individuals will probably stay in place, scrapping the order would bring clarity to U.S. companies considering business there.
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“President Obama should be laying out a series of human-rights benchmarks that will sustain momentum to eliminate unjust laws and ensure that the Burma Army fundamentally changes the way it operates, and only lift sanctions as those benchmarks are met”, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch. Myanmar will be back in the program on November 13, USA officials said.
