Yesterday, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced the issuance of a waiver and a general license authorization which eased sanctions on Burma and now allows for the importation of Burmese origin goods to the United States. This move brings the law into line with the representations made by the State Department in September that the Burmese import ban would be eased as the two countries normalize relations.

The waiver of the import ban was made pursuant to the authority delegated to the President under section 3(b) of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003. That section allows for the President to waive the ban on importation of any Burmese imports that the President determines is in the national security interest of the United States. To invoke this waiver authority the President must notify the the Committees on Appropriations, Finance, and Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committees on Appropriations, International Relations, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives of the determination. In addition, the general license authorization was issued to authorize the activities prohibited by sec. (3) of Executive Order 13310. That general license, however, did not authorize the importation of any jadeite or rubies mined or of articles of jewelry containing jadeite or rubies mined or extracted from Burma.

Despite this easing of sanctions targeting Burma, it should be remembered that these measures are only in relation to the importation of Burmese origin goods. There are still a number of blocked parties in Burma, appearing on the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”), with whom transactions by U.S. persons are prohibited. As such, compliance programs should still be maintained to ensure that no transactions with such are parties are carried out.

It was fairly clear from Treasury’s announcement of the waiver and the general license that despite the normalization of Burmese-U.S. relations there are still concerns relating to the activities of certain parties alleged to be involved in the repression of the democratic opposition in Burma. This was evidenced by the fact that OFAC designated Gold Ocean Pte Ltd., Great Success Pte. Ltd., Green Luck Trading Company, Gold Energy Co. Ltd., Asia Pioneer Impex Pte. Ltd., Terrestrial Pte. Ltd., and Asia Green Development Bank under the Burma program thereby blocking any assets of theirs coming under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting all transactions with U.S. persons. Thus, while Burma sanctions as a country based approach are diminishing, the Burma sanctions program is far from dead.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrariassociatespc.com.