US suspends sanctions on investment in Myanmar

Reuters: The United States on Thursday suspended sanctions barring U.S. investment in Myanmar in response to political reforms in the poor southeast Asian state, drawing praise from some U.S. lawmakers but criticism from human rights advocates.

“Today we say to American business: invest in Burma and do it responsibly,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

She appeared with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, on his long-isolated nation’s first official visit to Washington in decades as ties between the two countries warm rapidly.

Clinton said Washington would issue a general license to permit U.S. investments across Myanmar’s economy, and U.S. energy, mining and financial service companies were all now free to look for opportunities in the nation formerly known as Burma.

But Clinton stressed that the laws underpinning U.S. sanctions on Myanmar would remain as Washington seeks to maintain its leverage while pushing the reclusive country’s government further on democratic reforms.

“We are suspending sanctions. We believe that is the appropriate step for us to take today,” Clinton said.

“We will be keeping the relevant laws on the books as an insurance policy, but our goal and our commitment is to move as rapidly as we can to expand business and investment opportunities.”

Elaborating on the policy shift, President Barack Obama said Washington would work to “ensure that those who abuse human rights, engage in corruption, interfere with the peace process, or obstruct the reform process do not benefit from increased engagement with the United States.”

Clinton said the United States would maintain its arms embargo on Myanmar and urged the country’s new civilian-led government to take further steps to exert its control over the military, which ruled the country since a 1962 coup.

Thursday’s announcement marked the latest step in a rapid rapprochement between the United States and Myanmar, which has seen a dramatic series of political reforms in the past year.

Myanmar’s reformist, quasi-civilian government took office a year ago, ending five decades of military rule, and has started overhauling its economy, easing media censorship, legalizing trade unions and protests, freeing political prisoners and agreeing to ceasefires with a dozen ethnic rebel armies.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been elected to and taken a seat in parliament.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s biggest opposition force, won a 1990 election by a landslide but the country’s military refused to cede power and for two decades suppressed the party’s activities, jailing many of its members.

In response to the reforms, United States has promised to begin unwinding the complex web of U.S. sanctions that have contributed to the country’s isolation and driven it closer to its powerful neighbor, China.