State's Hormats Notes Restrictions Involving Imports From Burma Remain
There are still some sanctions left involving Burma, said Robert Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Energy, Growth, and the Environment, in a briefing with reporters. He said one of them is that Burmese products can't be imported into the U.S. "There’s a specific prohibition on precious stones and metals that come from Burma cannot be exported into the United States" he said, and "we still have restrictions on our ability to vote in multilateral institutions in favor of projects to Burma."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
But Burmese progress on human rights means "we want to enable American companies to invest in the country because other countries’ companies are able to invest," Hormats said. But ... "the main reason is that we want to demonstrate our support for the reforms the government has undertaken."
In response to a question during the briefing about the trade delegation Hormats led to Burma, he said "I think it’s too early to make projections on increase and investment or trade, for that matter. I think it’s much too early. This is really just the start. ... But ... I hope we will have a better idea once we talk to the companies who have come back and they assess the business and investment environment."
Increased U.S. trade with Burma won't mean more U.S. competition with China, Hormats said: "We understand that there is going to continue to be close economic ties between Burma and China. There are close, natural trade ties because they have a border with one another. ... But we want and they want to have diversification, and we think that what we're doing to allow general license for investment and the other things that we're discussing will give them a broader set of options and alternatives so that they're not heavily reliant on one or any group of countries."