US announces lifting economic sanctions on Myanmar

YANGON - US president Barrack Obama has announced lifting economic sanctions on Myanmar, following State Counselor Aung San Sun Kyi's visit to Washington last month, sources in Myanmar said Saturday.

Some dignitaries including business tycoons and former key military figures have been removed from the US blacklist as a result.

Obama issued on Friday an executive order to ease economic sanctions on Myanmar.

The announcement removed economic and financial sanctions administered by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

However, other sanction schemes remain, such as counter-narcotics sanctions.

During Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to Washington last month, the two sides also agreed that the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, a preferential tariff system which will allow Myanmar to export nearly 5,000 products to the U.S. duty-free, would be reinstated in November.

In May, the United States lifted restrictions on some Myanmar financial institutions and certain transactions related to US individuals living in the country.

Seven state-owned enterprises and three state-owned banks were also removed from the U.S. blacklist.

Obama's announcement on Friday eliminated all restrictions on U. S. banks, allowing them to provide correspondent services with banks in Myanmar.

Previously, US investments in Myanmar were made through third-party countries due to those restrictions.

"US's lifting sanction is just an issue as it can support the country's banking and finance sector partially. The local financial institutions should deserve long-term development using this opportunity," U Soe Thein, a local analyst, told Xinhua.

Overall the United States has only 17 businesses with trade in Myanmar, with total assets amounting to 248.216 million US dollars as of August of the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

Total volume of bilateral trade, which restarted in 2011, reached 196.902 million US dollars in the 2015-2016 fiscal year.