WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday the U.S. is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to former pariah state Myanmar as he met with Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner who is now the nation’s de facto leader.

Obama hailed a “remarkable” transformation in the country also known as Burma, which spent five decades under oppressive military rule. Suu Kyi’s party swept historic elections last November, and the visit by the 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, deeply respected in Washington, is a crowning occasion in the Obama administration’s support for Myanmar’s shift to democracy, which the administration views as a major foreign policy achievement.

The U.S. has eased broad economic sanctions since political reforms began five years ago and Obama has visited the country twice. But the U.S. has retained more targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and officials and associates of the former ruling junta. U.S. companies and banks have remained leery of involvement in one of Asia’s last untapped markets.

“The United States is now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time,” Obama said as he sat alongside Suu Kyi in the Oval Office. He said it was “the right thing to do” to ensure Myanmar benefits from its transition. Asked by a reporter when sanctions would be lifted, Obama said “soon.”

Suu concurred it was time to remove all the sanctions that had hurt the economy. She urged Americans to come to the country and “to make profits.”

Congressional aides said that Suu Kyi requested the removal of the national emergency with respect to Myanmar — the executive order authorizing sanctions that has been renewed annually by U.S. presidents for two decades.

A U.S. official said that by terminating the emergency, 111 Myanmar individuals and companies will be dropped from a Treasury blacklist and restrictions will be lifted on new investment with military and on the imports of rubies and jade. But penalties intended to block the drug trade and to bar military trade with North Korea would still apply, as would a visa ban barring some former and current members of the military from traveling to the U.S.

The official and aides spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hailed the announcement as “historic.” But human rights groups say there are powerful reasons for retaining sanctions. Military abuses continue in ethnic minority regions. Rohingya Muslims remain displaced by sectarian violence and denied citizenship. The military and its associates still have huge stakes in the economy.

“Obama and Suu Kyi just took important tools out of their collective tool kit for dealing with the Burmese military, and threw them into the garbage,” said John Sifton, deputy Washington director for Human Rights Watch.

Transparency watchdog Global Witness says Myanmar’s jade industry, based in a northern region plagued by civil conflict, is dominated by a military elite, U.S.-sanctioned drug lords and crony companies. It estimates the industry is worth nearly half of the nation’s economic output.

Suu Kyi addressed problems in western Rakhine state, where more than 100,000 Rohingyas remain stuck in camps, separated from Buddhists who are the majority in Myanmar. She said everyone entitled to citizenship in Myanmar should get it.

“We are sincere in trying to bring together the different communities,” Suu Kyi said.

The White House also notified Congress on Wednesday it would be reinstating in November trade benefits to Myanmar because of its progress on workers’ rights. The benefits were suspended in 1989, a year after the bloody crackdown on democracy protesters by the military.

Suu Kyi last visited Washington in 2012 when she was still opposition leader. On that occasion, she was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the legislature’s highest civilian honor, which she had been awarded in 2008 while under house arrest.

Now she is de facto leader of the country with the title of state counsellor although a junta-era constitution still enshrines the military’s role in politics and bars her from the presidency.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest pushed back on the notion the U.S. was undercutting its leverage over Myanmar on human rights and constitutional reforms by lifting sanctions. He said greater U.S. engagement would promote its ability to promote change.

Associated Press writers Kathleen Hennessey and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.</s>Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi met President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday on her first visit to the United States since her party won a sweeping victory in last year’s election, capping a decades-long journey from political prisoner to national leader.

With Suu Kyi no longer an opposition figure, the United States is weighing a further easing of sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, as Obama looks to normalise relations with a country Washington shunned when it was ruled by a military junta.

Suu Kyi also was expected to meet other US officials including Secretary of State John Kerry and senior members of Congress.

“Before it was very much encouraging her (Suu Kyi) and supporting her in her role as someone pushing for increased democracy. Now they (US officials) are meeting someone in charge of the government,” said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Obama is expected to consult with Suu Kyi on whether to further ease US sanctions to help investment and the democratic transition in her country, the White House said.

As Suu Kyi arrived at the White House, Obama issued a statement saying he would reinstate Myanmar to the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which provides duty-free treatment for goods from poor and developing countries.

Myanmar was removed from GSP benefits in 1989 following pro-democracy uprisings a year earlier that were brutally suppressed by the ruling military junta.

The United States eased some sanctions against Myanmar earlier this year to support political reform but maintained most of its economic restrictions with an eye toward penalizing those it views as hampering the democratically elected government.

With Suu Kyi in Washington, officials in Myanmar said the government there was making a push to overhaul rules on new foreign investment this week.

New investment approvals have fallen since Suu Kyi took power in April and some businesses and investors have criticized her for failing to prioritize the economy.

Separately, a group of 46 non-governmental organizations circulated a letter they wrote to Obama on Monday expressing concern about reports of plans to ease sanctions on Myanmar while human rights abuses by the military and against Rohingya Muslims persisted.

“While incremental progress is being made in Burma, it is vital that the US continue to act in support of Burma’s people, particularly those still suffering under the current government,” the letter said.

“To lift sanctions prior to tangible change for suffering communities would be a disservice to those vulnerable peoples who deserve international protection,” it said.

On Wednesday, Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized what he described as Suu Kyi’s “dismissive” reaction to concerns he had raised about her country’s record on human trafficking.

“After witnessing her lack of regard for Burma’s dismal track record on this issue, I plan to pay very close attention to her government’s efforts to prevent innocent human beings from being trafficked and sold into forced labor and sex slavery,” Corker said in a statement released to Reuters after a breakfast meeting with Suu Kyi and Vice President Joe Biden.

Myanmar’s military stepped back from direct control of the country in 2011 after 49 years in power, but maintains a commanding role in politics, controlling 25 per cent of the seats in Parliament and leading three key ministries.

Suu Kyi is barred from being president under a military-drafted constitution because her sons are not Myanmar citizens. She serves instead as the country’s de facto leader by holding the positions of foreign minister and state counselor.

She faces the challenge of guiding Myanmar’s relationship with the United States and neighboring China, which enjoyed a preferential relationship with the military government.

“The US-Myanmar dynamic, it is not a close strategic relationship to the exclusion of China but introducing more balance,” said Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst in Yangon.

There are also formidable obstacles at home for the popular Nobel laureate.

Suu Kyi has been criticized by rights groups for failing to address the plight of the country’s stateless Rohingya minority. About 125,000 remain confined to squalid camps on the country’s western coast following violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012.

Last week, a commission Suu Kyi set up and charged with making recommendations on the situation and which is led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan traveled to Myanmar for the first time.

“It is clear that in setting up the Annan Commission, Suu Kyi is not merely looking for some diplomatic cover, but is making Rakhine State a priority and is serious about taking steps to address the situation,” Horsey said.</s>Obama says U.S. is prepared to lift Myanmar sanctions "soon"

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the United States was prepared to lift sanctions on Myanmar "soon" and that democratic progress in the country was incomplete but on the right track.

During a meeting with Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi at the White House, Obama said the U.S. moves would give incentives to businesses to invest in the Asian country.

Suu Kyi, visiting the White House for the first time since her party won a sweeping victory in last year's election, said it was time for all sanctions that hurt her country economically to be lifted. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Paul Simao)</s>WASHINGTON – The White House is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to former pariah state Myanmar, officials said Wednesday, as Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner and now the nation's de facto leader, met with President Barack Obama.

Suu Kyi's party swept historic elections last November, and the visit by the 71-year-old Nobel peace laureate, deeply respected in Washington, is a crowning occasion in the Obama administration's support for Myanmar's shift to democracy, which the administration views as a major foreign policy achievement.

The U.S. has eased broad economic sanctions since political reforms began five years ago but has retained more targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and dozens of officials and associates of the former ruling junta. U.S. companies and banks have remained leery of involvement in one of Asia's last untapped markets.

Human rights groups, however, say there are powerful reasons for retaining sanctions. Military abuses continue in ethnic minority regions. Rohingya Muslims remain displaced by sectarian violence and denied citizenship.

Congressional aides said that Suu Kyi had requested the removal of the national emergency with respect to Myanmar — the executive order authorizing sanctions that has been renewed annually by U.S. presidents for two decades.

A U.S. official says that by terminating the emergency, 111 Myanmar individuals and companies will be dropped from a Treasury blacklist and restrictions will be lifted on new investment with the military and on the imports of rubies and jade.

The official and aides spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter before it was expected to be announced after Obama's meeting with Suu Kyi.

The move does not remove all economic sanctions. Penalties intended to block the drug trade and to bar military trade with North Korea would still apply, as would a visa ban barring some former and current members of the military from traveling to the U.S.

The move does not normalize relations with Myanmar's military. The U.S. does not intend to provide weapons, military equipment or other support for the military, the official said.

The White House notified Congress on Wednesday it was offering preferential trade benefits to Myanmar that were suspended in 1989, a year after the bloody crackdown on democracy protesters by the military. The U.S. had cited Myanmar's refusal to recognize workers' rights.

Suu Kyi's visit to Washington signals her transformation from long-imprisoned heroine of Myanmar's democracy struggle to a national leader focused on economic growth.

She last visited Washington in 2012 when she was still opposition leader. On that occasion, she was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the legislature's highest civilian honor, which she had been awarded in 2008 while under house arrest.

Now she meets Obama as the de facto leader of the country with the title of state counsellor although a junta-era constitution still enshrines the military's role in politics and bars her from the presidency. When Obama last visited Myanmar in November 2014, he voiced support for constitutional reform.

Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.</s>Long-standing trade sanctions against Myanmar are to be lifted, US President Barack Obama has said.

 The news came as Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, arrived in Washington on her first official visit.

 Myanmar’s access to trade benefits for poorer nations had been suspended in 1989 over human rights abuses.

 President Obama said the country should now be allowed to benefit from preferential tariffs as it emerges from decades of military rule.

 He confirmed the move in a letter to Congress on Wednesday, adding Myanmar – also known as Burma – to the Generalised System of Preferences, a list which exempts certain countries from high import taxes.

 Though many companies will now enjoy lower tariffs, there are some sanctions which remain in place.

 These include a “blacklist” of at least 100 companies and individuals with links to the former military junta, as well as trade in jade and rubies.

President Obama said the lifting of some sanctions would happen “soon”, but did not give further details.

 “It is the right thing to do to ensure the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business, and a new government,” he said.

 He also paid tribute to the efforts made towards peace in the country, and the “enormous potential” of the country.

 Ms Suu Kyi called on the US Congress to eliminate all remaining sanctions against Myanmar.

 “Unity also needs prosperity,” she said. “People, when they have to fight over limited resources, forget that standing together is important.”

 “We think that the time has come to remove all of the sanctions that hurt us economically,” she said.

 Ahead of Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit, Human Rights Watch said the sanctions targeted military officials, and “shouldn’t be fully lifted until the democratic transition is irreversible.”

 Ms Suu Kyi, who as opposition leader was kept under house arrest for 15 years, led her National League for Democracy party to victory in Myanmar’s first openly contested election for decades in November 2015.

 She is barred from the role of president under the country’s constitution – instead holding the title of state counsellor – but is widely seen as the country’s leader in all but name.</s>WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the U.S. is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to Burma as he met with Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner who is now the nation's de facto leader.

Obama hailed a "remarkable" transformation in the country also known as Myanmar, which spent five decades under military rule. Suu Kyi's party swept historic elections last November, and the visit by the 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is a crowning occasion in the Obama administration's support for Burma's shift to democracy, which the administration views as a major foreign policy achievement.

The U.S. has eased broad economic sanctions since political reforms began five years ago, and Obama has visited the country twice. But the U.S. has retained more targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and officials and associates of the former ruling junta. U.S. companies and banks have remained leery of involvement in one of Asia's last untapped markets.

"The United States is now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time," Obama said as he sat alongside Suu Kyi in the Oval Office. He said it was "the right thing to do" to ensure Burma benefits from its transition. Asked by a reporter when sanctions would be lifted, Obama said "soon."

Suu Kyi concurred that it was time to remove all the sanctions that had hurt the economy. She urged Americans to come to the country and "to make profits."

Congressional aides said Suu Kyi requested the removal of the national emergency with respect to Burma -- the executive order authorizing sanctions that has been renewed annually by U.S. presidents for two decades.

The Treasury Department said Obama's decision will be legally effective when he issues a new executive order to terminate the emergency. A U.S. official said 111 Burmese individuals and companies will be dropped from a Treasury blacklist, and restrictions will be lifted on new investment with the military and on the imports of rubies and jade. But penalties intended to block the drug trade and to bar military trade with North Korea would still apply.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hailed the announcement as "historic." But human-rights groups say there are powerful reasons for retaining sanctions. Military abuses continue in ethnic minority regions. Rohingya Muslims remain displaced by sectarian violence and denied citizenship. The military and its associates still have huge stakes in the economy.

"Obama and Suu Kyi just took important tools out of their collective tool kit for dealing with the Burmese military, and threw them into the garbage," said John Sifton, deputy Washington director for Human Rights Watch.

Transparency advocate Global Witness says Burma's jade industry, based in a northern region plagued by civil conflict, is dominated by a military elite, U.S.-sanctioned drug lords and crony companies. It estimates the industry is worth nearly half the nation's economic output.

Suu Kyi addressed problems in western Rakhine state, where more than 100,000 Rohingyas remain stuck in camps, separated from Buddhists who are the majority in Burma. She said everyone entitled to citizenship in Burma should get it.

"We are sincere in trying to bring together the different communities," Suu Kyi said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest pushed back on the notion that the U.S. was undercutting its leverage over Burma on human rights and constitutional reforms by lifting sanctions. He said greater U.S. engagement would promote its ability to promote change.

Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Hennessey and Josh Lederman of The Associated Press.</s>WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s administration will seek to accept 110,000 refugees from around the world in fiscal 2017, officials announced Wednesday. Secretary of State John Kerry briefed lawmakers Tuesday on the new goal, which is an increase from 85,000 in fiscal 2016 and 70,000 in the previous three years. It represents a 57 percent increase in refugee arrivals since 2015, as ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere have spurred an exodus of migrants seeking asylum. The country that sent the most refugees to America in 2015, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, was Burma, which sent 18,386 refugees that year. That figure accounted for more than 26 percent of the total and surpassed Iraq, which sent 12,676 refugees.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday the U.S. is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to former pariah state Myanmar as he met with Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner who is now the nation’s de facto leader.

Obama hailed a “remarkable” transformation in the country also known as Burma, which spent five decades under oppressive military rule. Suu Kyi’s party swept historic elections last November, and the visit by the 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, deeply respected in Washington, is a crowning occasion in the Obama administration’s support for Myanmar’s shift to democracy.

The U.S. has eased broad economic sanctions since political reforms began five years ago and Obama has visited the country twice. But the U.S. has retained more targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and officials and associates of the former ruling junta. U.S. companies and banks have remained leery of involvement in one of Asia’s last untapped markets.

“The United States is now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time,” Obama said as he sat alongside Suu Kyi in the Oval Office. He said it was “the right thing to do” to ensure Myanmar benefits from its transition. Asked by a reporter when sanctions would be lifted, Obama said “soon.”

Suu Kyi urged Americans to come to the country and “to make profits.”

The Treasury Department said Obama’s decision will be legally effective when he issues a new executive order to terminate the emergency. A U.S. official said that 111 Myanmar individuals and companies will be dropped from a Treasury blacklist and restrictions will be lifted on new investment with military and on the imports of rubies and jade. But penalties intended to block the drug trade and to bar military trade with North Korea would still apply, as would a visa ban barring some former and current members of the military from traveling to the U.S.</s>President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the United States was prepared to lift sanctions on Myanmar "soon" and that democratic progress in the country was incomplete but on the right track.

During a meeting with Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi at the White House, Obama said the U.S. moves would give incentives to businesses to invest in the Asian country.

Suu Kyi, visiting the White House for the first time since her party won a sweeping victory in last year's election, said it was time for all sanctions that hurt her country economically to be lifted.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is calling for U.S. companies to bring investment to the former pariah state, saying economic success would help convince people and the powerful military that democracy is the best way forward.

Suu Kyi addressed the U.S. business community on Thursday, a day after President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would lift sanctions and restore long-lost trade benefits as the Southeast Asian nation emerges from half a century of oppressive military rule.

Suu Kyi says that lifting sanctions entails some political and economic risk, but adds, “It is time now for our people to depend on themselves.”

Obama aide Ben Rhodes says the so-called “national emergency” with respect to Myanmar that authorizes the sanctions will be terminated in the “coming days.”</s>(WASHINGTON) – Burma’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged businesses to invest in the Southeast Asian country on Thursday as a way to advance its democratic transition, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to lift long-standing sanctions on the country.

Suu Kyi, speaking in Washington, said that economic development spurred by foreign investment was needed to show the impoverished nation of more than 50 million people that democracy could improve their livelihoods and promote further change.

“Economic success is one of the ways that we can persuade everyone in our country, including the military, that democracy is the best way forward for our union,” Suu Kyi told a dinner of business officials, diplomats and government officials hosted by the U.S. ASEAN Business Council.

“In order to make the political transition work, we have to have the economic expectations of our people fulfilled as well,” she added.

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Sanctions were imposed on the country, formerly known as Burma, in 1997 after decades under a military dictatorship that stifled dissent and showed little regard for human rights.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy swept to power in November elections, the first free national vote in 25 years.

But the Nobel Peace laureate has been criticized by the private sector for not focusing on business reforms and failing to put forth comprehensive economic policies.

Read more: Five Things to Know About Aung San Suu Kyi’s Visit to Washington

Obama said on Wednesday that he would lift remaining sanctions on Burma, a move supported by Suu Kyi, who said she recognized that some believed the move came too soon.

Obama’s announcement drew swift condemnation from rights groups, which said it forfeited leverage on Burma’s military.

“In some ways it is a risk, it as much a political risk as an economic risk, because there are those who believe it is not yet time for us to remove the sanctions, but we think that it is time now for our people to depend on themselves, to go forward with the help of our friends,” Suu Kyi said of the decision.

When sanctions are lifted, it will clear U.S. businesses to work with companies and individuals that were previous off limits, including some of Burma’s most prominent businessmen.

Conglomerate Asia World, blacklisted for alleged ties to Burma’s military, welcomed Obama’s pledge to lift sanctions.

“AWC (Asia World Company) expects to see a stronger economic growth and foreign investments in Burma with the removal of the sanctions,” the company said by email.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Contact us at editors@time.com.
Burmese State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi asks U.S. businesses to invest in Myanmar after Barack Obama agrees to lift U.S. sanctions.