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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (7959)	10/8/1999 2:44:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

U.S. Sanctions Against India, Pakistan May Be Relaxed Under Spending Bill Fri, 08 Oct 1999, 2:38am EDT By Emily Schwartz (Bloomberg) U.S. Military Spending Bill May Blunt India, Pakistan Sanctions Washington, Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senate and House legislators agreed on a provision that would let President Bill Clinton permanently lift trade sanctions the U.S. imposed on India and Pakistan after they exploded nuclear devices last year. The provision, included in a $268 billion military spending bill, would give Clinton the flexibility he is seeking in relations with the two nations, which remain embroiled in a 50-year dispute over the Kashmir region on their shared border. ``This is good news for farmers, for the aircraft industry and for all the other industries that suffered lost exports when the automatic sanctions went into effect,' said Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who backed the provision. ``Unilateral trade sanctions are strangling our own economy without achieving their goals.' The move comes as Congress is under pressure from U.S. farmers and businesses to restrict the use of sanctions. These groups say the trade-and-investment freeze the U.S. imposes on at least 29 countries hurts American companies more than targeted nations. The sanctions against India and Pakistan, mainly mandated by U.S. laws linked to nuclear testing, were imposed in May of 1998. While some were later waived, authority to continue the waiver expires in two weeks. Military Sanctions Stay Clinton has indicated he will sign the spending bill into law. Yet State Department spokesmen have also signaled the government isn't ready to lift military sanctions against the two nations. Aircraft maker Boeing Co., singled out by Roberts in his statement, had no immediate comment. Even with the sanctions in place, the company secured an order for 10 737-800 planes from India's Jet Airways earlier this year. Deliveries, worth about $550 million, are to begin in 2001, Boeing said in a statement in June. Boeing has projected a booming market in the region. In 1995, it forecast $18 billion in aircraft sales over 20 years in India alone. Yet agricultural goods sales are among the U.S.'s main shipments to South Asia, and U.S. farmers are eager to maintain the region as an export market. For example, Pakistan, the No. 3 foreign buyer of U.S. wheat in the 12 months ended May 1998, dropped to No. 8 the next year. Wheat sales fell almost 75 percent in the year following that country's nuclear tests to 843,500 tons, from 2.232 million metric tons a year earlier, even though some of the sanctions were lifted. Confidence in Clinton Still, sanctions on military aid and sales to Pakistan and India have remained in place, as required by a 1994 law aimed at discouraging the development of nuclear arsenals. ``I am confident the president will act quickly to remove the sanctions once this bill is passed,' Roberts said. That mean doesn't military sanctions are going to end right away. ``I'm not aware of any decisions to waive military sanctions,' said David Leavy, a spokesman for the National Security Council. Roberts' staff agreed. ``Chances are (Clinton) may not take off the military sanctions,' said Betsy Holahan, the senator's spokeswoman. ``The intent is just to give the president the authority to decide whether the sanctions are necessary,' and the defense spending bill is ``just the vehicle,' she said.