McCain urges lifting Myanmar sanctions

 Bangkokpost,  Published: 14/05/2012 at 11:04 PM ...

Key Republican Senator John McCain called Monday on the United States to suspend most sanctions on Myanmar, saying the administration must go further than planned to encourage the country's reforms.

McCain proposed that the United States, like the European Union, freeze sanctions on Myanmar for a set time period with the exception of the embargo on arms sales.

McCain, who has traveled twice to Myanmar over the past year, acknowledged that the country had more work to do on ending long-running ethnic wars but said President Thein Sein and his allies "are sincere about reform, and they are making real progress.''

Such concrete moves "should be met with reciprocal actions by the United States that can strengthen these reforms, benefit ordinary Burmese and improve our relationship,'' McCain said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

McCain said that the United States should still maintain a blacklist on trade with particular companies and individuals in Myanmar and ban US companies from doing business with military-dominated firms.

"The right investment would strengthen Myanmar's private sector, benefit its citizens and ultimately loosen the military's control over the economy and the civilian government,'' the Arizona senator said.

"The wrong investment would do the opposite - entrenching a new oligarchy and setting back Myanmar's development for decades,'' he said.

"US businesses will never win a race to the bottom with some of their Asian - or even European - competitors, and they should not try,'' he said.

The administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat who defeated McCain in the White House race in 2008, has been pursuing talks with Myanmar in hopes of ending the country's long isolation.

The administration announced on April 4 that it would allow limited investment and appoint an ambassador after Myanmar allowed by-elections in which democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi - who spent most of the past two decades under house arrest - won a seat in parliament.

But the administration has opposed a complete lifting of sanctions, saying that it needs to preserve leverage to encourage further reforms including an end to abuses by the military in ethnic minority areas.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/293290/mccain-urges-lifting-myanmar-sanctions