• Burmese
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
27 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

US Announces Lifting of Burma Sanctions

Matthew Pennington by Matthew Pennington
September 15, 2016
in Burma
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and US President Barack Obama at the White House / Carlos Barria / Reuters

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and US President Barack Obama at the White House / Carlos Barria / Reuters

5.3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

WASHINGTON DC, United States — President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the United States is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to Burma as he met with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The US has eased broad economic sanctions since political reforms began five years ago and Obama has visited the country twice. But the US has retained more targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and officials and associates of the former ruling junta. US companies and banks have remained leery of involvement in one of Asia’s last untapped markets.

Obama hailed a “remarkable” transformation in the country. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party swept historic elections last November, and the visit by the 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, deeply respected in Washington, is a crowning occasion in the Obama administration’s support for Burma’s shift to democracy, which the administration views as a major foreign policy achievement.

RelatedPosts

EU Renews Sanctions Against Myanmar Junta

EU Renews Sanctions Against Myanmar Junta

April 29, 2025
2k
EU Firm Sold Phone-Hacking Software to Myanmar Junta’s Police

EU Firm Sold Phone-Hacking Software to Myanmar Junta’s Police

April 18, 2025
2.5k
Singapore Remains Biggest Foreign Investor in Myanmar

Singapore Remains Biggest Foreign Investor in Myanmar

February 4, 2025
2.6k

“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 the State Counselor in the Oval Office. He said it was “the right thing to do” to ensure Burma benefits from its transition. Asked by a reporter when sanctions would be lifted, Obama said “soon.”

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi concurred it was time to remove all the sanctions that had hurt the economy. She urged Americans to come to the country and “to make profits.”

Congressional aides said that Suu Kyi requested the removal of the national emergency with respect to Burma — the executive order authorizing sanctions that has been renewed annually by US presidents for two decades.

The Treasury Department said that Obama’s decision will be legally effective when he issues a new executive order to terminate the emergency. A US official said that 111 individuals and companies will be dropped from a Treasury blacklist and restrictions will be lifted on new investment with military and on the imports of rubies and jade.

But penalties intended 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 US.

The official and aides spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The US Chamber of Commerce hailed the announcement as “historic.” But human rights groups say there are powerful reasons for retaining sanctions. Military abuses continue in ethnic minority regions. Rohingya Muslims remain displaced by sectarian violence and denied citizenship. The military and its associates still have huge stakes in the economy.

“Obama and Daw Aung San 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.

Transparency watchdog Global Witness said Burma’s jade industry—based in a northern region plagued by civil conflict—is dominated by a military elite, US-sanctioned drug lords and crony companies. It estimates the industry is worth nearly half of the nation’s economic output.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addressed problems in western Arakan state, where more than 100,000 Rohingyas remain stuck in camps, separated from Buddhists who are the majority in Burma . She said everyone entitled to citizenship in Burma should get it.

“We are sincere in trying to bring together the different communities,” she said.

The White House also notified Congress on Wednesday it would be reinstating in November trade benefits Burma because of its progress on workers’ rights. The benefits were suspended in 1989, a year after the bloody crackdown on democracy protesters by the military.

Suu Kyi last visited Washington in 2012 when she was still opposition leader. On that occasion, she was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the legislature’s highest civilian honor, which she had been awarded in 2008 while under house arrest.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest pushed back on the notion the US was undercutting its leverage over Burma on human rights and constitutional reforms by lifting sanctions. He said greater US engagement would promote its ability to promote change.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: Sanctions
Matthew Pennington

Matthew Pennington

The Associated Press

Similar Picks:

Myanmar Junta’s Central Bank Had $6.8 Bn in Reserves at 14 Int’l Banks in March
Myanmar’s Crisis & the World

Myanmar Junta’s Central Bank Had $6.8 Bn in Reserves at 14 Int’l Banks in March

by The Irrawaddy
August 21, 2023
19k

Singapore banks held 67% of the junta’s foreign reserves; in a bank document seen by The Irrawaddy, the junta praises...

Read moreDetails
France Urged to Probe Assets of US Sanctioned Myanmar Student
Junta Cronies

France Urged to Probe Assets of US Sanctioned Myanmar Student

by The Irrawaddy
April 27, 2024
16.3k

Despite being sanctioned by Washington, daughter of the founder of Myanmar military junta-linked crony conglomerate has enrolled in elite business...

Read moreDetails
French Aircraft Are Abetting War Crimes in Myanmar: Report
Burma

French Aircraft Are Abetting War Crimes in Myanmar: Report

by The Irrawaddy
August 29, 2024
13.3k

The aircraft are assembled in France with fuselages made in Italy and engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney Canada.

Read moreDetails
UK Hits Myanmar Border Guard Force Colonel, Two Others, With Sanctions
Burma

UK Hits Myanmar Border Guard Force Colonel, Two Others, With Sanctions

by The Irrawaddy
December 9, 2023
10.8k

Saw Chit Thu and two others linked to a massive gambling project in Karen State were sanctioned over allegations of...

Read moreDetails
--
Guest Column

‘Broken Tooth’: The Face of Chinese Investment in Myanmar

by Bertil Lintner
July 17, 2023
22k

The spread of enterprises run by Macau triad boss Wan Kuok Koi and his associates in Myanmar is illustrative of...

Read moreDetails
Delivering Death: Chinese Jet-Fuel Tanker Sailing Into Myanmar
Myanmar’s Crisis & the World

Delivering Death: Chinese Jet-Fuel Tanker Sailing Into Myanmar

by The Irrawaddy
July 10, 2024
7.7k

Amnesty International says one Chinese-owned vessel delivered jet fuel to Yangon’s junta-controlled port at least eight times since last year.

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Review: Dissident Memoirs of Ma Thida and U Kyaw Win

Review: Dissident Memoirs of Ma Thida and U Kyaw Win

A visit by the Kofi Annan-led Arakan State Advisory Commission to Sittwe’s Aung Mingalar quarter in Arakan State last week. / Marayu / Facebook

Looking Inside Arakan Advisory Commission’s Closed-Door Meeting

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

6 days ago
1.3k
‘Not a Witch Hunt’: Upholding Survivor-Centered Justice in Myanmar

‘Not a Witch Hunt’: Upholding Survivor-Centered Justice in Myanmar

4 days ago
638

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s ‘Living Fence’ on Thai Border Falls to Karen Resistance

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Indian Army Accused of Deadly Strike on Separatists in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • TNLA Invites Investment in Ruby and Mineral Towns Amid Myanmar Junta Onslaught

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Moves into Nawnghkio Outskirts

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.