Media Coverage
Source: Financial Times
Media Coverage
05.17.13
Unlike U.S. sanctions on South Africa or Libya, which were lifted quickly, the Obama administration has maintained some restrictions on Myanmar to give it leverage over the country’s ongoing reform process. However, the U.S. also wants to see U.S. companies win some of the new business opportunities that are available as part of the reform process. One such opportunity is a contract worth $1 billion over 30 years to upgrade and operate Yangon’s airport.
Chris Wall, an international trade partner in Pillsbury’s Washington, D.C. office, commented on the remaining Myanmar restrictions, which include a list of people in Myanmar that U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with.
“The real problem that remains, and the cause of the biggest speed bumps, are these ‘specially designated nationals,’” Wall said, using the U.S. Treasury’s terminology to describe barred business partners. “These are primarily military officers, and it’s very opaque; you don’t know the interests that these people have.”