With all the talk of relaxing Cuba sanctions and possible talks with Iran, it’s not surprising that Burma is showing up at the “me too” table asking for service. Today at Bloomberg, Frank Smithius, Burma country director for Médecins Sans Frontières, is quoted saying this:

Because of sanctions there is a lot of suffering, and we see that particularly in the humanitarian-aid field. There’s definitely hope in the aid community that the policy will be reconsidered. The Myanmar people are victims of a humanitarian boycott. There is enormous pressure on politicians in the West to look politically correct, and they get human rights brownie points by being very strict on aid.

In the same article, Bloomberg provides a chart showing that Burma ranked dead last in foreign aid per capita in 2007, receiving $4.07 per capita, which compares to the $52.32 per capita aid received by Sudan. Indeed, in February, Secretary Clinton stated that the Obama administration’s policy toward Burma’s military junta was undergoing a “major review.”

The EU at the end of April renewed its sanctions against Burma for another year. The EU foreign ministers voting to extend the sanctions indicated that they were nonetheless willing to hold consultations with the junta during the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May.

The current EU sanctions involve visa restrictions, asset blocking and an arms embargo. U.S. sanctions are broader and include, in addition to asset blocking and an arms embargo, a ban on imports, a ban on new investment, and a ban on exports of “financial services” which are broadly defined to include funds transfers, insurance services and investment and brokerage services. The U.S. regulations provide for a general license permitting exports of financial services in support of NGO activity in Burma.

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