U.S. Eases Syrian Export Sanctions to Help Reconstruction
The Departments of State and Treasury issued limited waivers allowing the export and reexport of U.S.-origin reconstruction items such as agricultural equipment, to opposition-controlled areas of Syria June 12. The new license policy will also allow U.S. companies to engage in transactions with Syria’s oil, agricultural and telecommunications sectors. The actions "still require companies interested in engaging in these transactions to come in and get specific licenses," said a senior State Department official in a June 12 briefing call (read the transcript here). "That ensures that relevant U.S. governments can review specific transactions to make sure that specifically sanctioned entities aren’t able to participate in those transactions and that those transactions are actually for the benefit of the Syrian people."
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The limited waiver authorizes the Bureau of Industry and Security to issue licenses on a case-by-case basis for U.S. companies and persons to export reconstruction-related commodities, including equipment for construction, engineering, sanitation, agricultural production, power generation, transportation and educational infrastructure. According to a BIS press release, the export and reexport of food and medicine to Syria is already permitted without a license, BIS said in a statement (here). Some medical devices and telecommunications commodities may already be licensed under pre-existing waivers. BIS will publish an implementing regulation on the new license waivers shortly, it said. Exporters and re-exporters may immediately submit license applications for consideration.
In addition, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a Statement of Licensing Policy today allowing U.S. companies and persons to apply for licenses to engage in oil-related transactions and the export of oil from Syria (here). The new licenses are also designed to aid the Syrian opposition. No licenses will authorize any transactions with the Syrian Government, its agencies and controlled entities, or any person or business sanctioned under an Executive Order, OFAC said. OFAC will license, on a case-by-case basis, transactions for Syria's agricultural and telecommunications sectors. All applications will be reviewed by the OFAC and other U.S. agencies “to ensure that proposed activities are consistent with U.S. foreign policy goals,” according to a State Department press release (here).
OFAC also authorized exports and reexports by non-governmental organizations for certain not-for-profit projects, including activities to support humanitarian projects, democracy building and education (here). U.S.-registered brokers, securities dealers and depository institutions are also allowed to process funds transfers on behalf of NGOs to or from Syria in support of the activities, OFAC said.
Senior State Department officials called the new policies proactive, but said they also addressed several instances where U.S. companies wanted to send equipment that was not previously authorized to opposition areas of Syria. “A major American manufacturer was hoping, pursuant to a request from a major international organization, to be able to deliver some water purification equipment into Syria that we could not authorize prior to the actions we’re taking today,” officials said. “Going forward, we could authorize that kind of action.” Officials also said they “expect there to be more and more need and more and more demand for these kinds of goods and services.”
“The actions we’re taking today are separate from U.S. Government-provided assistance to the opposition,” a State official said. “This is really about enabling the opposition to work with private sector, work with international organizations…to provide additional support reconstruction activities in those areas beyond what the U.S. is providing from the U.S. government directly.”