制裁缅甸束缚美缅贸易

Myanmar Sanctions Killing US-Myanmar Trade

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/YANGON - Western banks are cutting trade finance in Myanmar after learning that part of the country's main port is controlled by a man blacklisted by Washington.

The economic standoff threatens to stop nascent US-Myanmar economic ties in their tracks.

US shipments to Myanmar have slowed to a crawl in recent months, after several banks including Citigroup Inc, Bank of America, HSBC and PNC Financial curtailed their financial backing of trade with the country, according to sanctions lawyers and other people familiar with the matter.

Studying trade documents, Citigroup noticed in June that the Port of Yangon's main terminal is controlled by Steven Law.

Mr Law is also known as Stephen Law and 23 other aliases, according to the sanctions notice by the US Department of the Treasury. An extensive biography of his father's drug dealings and some of Mr Law's holdings were published in a special report by the Bangkok Post when the father died in 2013.

Mr Law is subject to US sanctions because of his alleged ties to Myanmar's military, the sources for this story said.

Citi alerted other banks in June, and their compliance officers warned that further financing could violate remaining US sanctions, according to several sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

At stake are embryonic, but fast developing economic ties between the United States and Myanmar, which US diplomats see as crucial to maintaining Washington's influence during a critical period in the country's transition to democracy.

Myanmar holds a landmark election on Sunday, key for the future of political reforms that started with a formation of a civilian government in 2011 after decades of military rule.

Washington and the European Union started lifting economic sanctions the following year to encourage Myanmar authorities to stay the reform course.

Since then, the total volume of trade between the United States and Myanmar has risen from less than $10 million in 2010 to more than $185 million last year (about 6.63 billion baht), according to the US Commerce Department.

That is still a tiny fraction of the Southeast Asian country's over $27 billion trade dominated by its Asian partners - Thailand, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and South Korea.

But the political importance of trade with the United States goes far beyond what the modest amounts would suggest, said Jose W Fernandez, a former assistant secretary of state who was an architect of sanctions policy in Myanmar.

"It is a way for the leaders to prove to the world that they are no longer global pariahs", Mr Fernandez said.

Developing economic ties with Washington also helps Myanmar counterbalance the influence of Beijing, said Peter Harrell, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who played a key role in easing the sanctions. "Myanmar doesn't want to be overly dependent on the Chinese".

From that perspective, the slump in US exports to Myanmar to $5.5 million in September from over $50 million in June, is a source of concern.

MINEFIELD

Mr Fernandez said Myanmar offers a preview of challenges Washington will face in implementing an international deal that removes some sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program, and in its re-engagement with Cuba.

"I think some of these sanctions programs were created at a time when we didn't think about the need to remove them", he said.

Myanmar's trade finance snag highlights how unwinding sanctions while some key economic players remain blacklisted creates a minefield for companies that could undermine Washington's broader political objectives.

Mr Law's business conglomerate Asia World is a case in point.

Cutting off financing of shipments handled by his firm "could amount to a de facto trade embargo" because half of all Myanmar's trade flows through the Asia World terminal, two banking associations said in a letter to the US Treasury Department in July.

Foreign institutions could also be affected. About a dozen international banks that have US presence, mostly European, have been stung by more than $14 billion in US penalties since 2009 for various sanctions violations.

In the letter, the Clearing House Association and the Bankers Association of Finance and Trade asked the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces US sanctions, for a legal workaround that would allow shipments to pass through Asia World.

The US State Department and OFAC is considering possible solutions, according to sources familiar with their deliberations. But in the meantime, OFAC warned banks to refrain from financing any shipments that Asia World might handle, according to the letter.

Asked about a possible solution, a Treasury spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that the agency was working with the US State Department to support Myanmar's democratic transition, "while also ensuring that illicit actors do not benefit".

More than a hundred individuals and businesses - many, like Mr Law, key players in Myanmar - are still subject to US sanctions.

US diplomats have encouraged them to apply for the sanctions to be removed, but the process can take years. So far only nine Myanmar-related entities have been taken off the list - two of those were people who had already died.

While they wait for a legal fix, US banks are also freezing or delaying payments for shipments that have already arrived in Yangon, according to those familiar with the matter.

Even when the goods get shipped, exporters faced long delays in payments from the banks, Moe Myint Kyaw, secretary general of Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said in an interview.

Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions adviser at the US Treasury said allowing trade finance to get squelched was "totally inconsistent with US policy" of bringing western financial institutions into Myanmar.

Banks, mindful of record fines for sanctions violations, will play it safe given the relatively little money they make in Myanmar, said Mr Kucik, who is now a principal of Inle Advisory Group that advises US businesses on investments in Myanmar.

"If you increase compliance costs it's going to be easier for them to just say 'screw it'".

9 November 2015

By Joel Schectman, David Henry and Timothy McLaughlin, Reuters

The Post Publishing Public Company Limited . All Rights Reserved.

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