Jul

29

If Sanctions Fell on Eritrea, Would Anyone Feel Them?


Posted by at 7:08 pm on July 29, 2009
Category: Eritrea Sanctions

Eritrean StampIn testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, rattled the sanctions saber against Eritrea, saying that the Eritrean government had only a “short window of time” to improve its relationship with the United States or be subject to sanctions. Rice did not specify what sanctions she had in mind.

The U.S. has accused Eritrea for quite some time of supporting Al-Qaeda linked groups in neighboring Somalia. Based on these allegations, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo in October 2008. That embargo was largely symbolic because in the prior year no military sales had been made from the United States to Eritrea.

If the United States unilaterally attempts to impose restrictions on imports and exports to Eritrea, these restrictions are likely to be just as symbolic as the arms embargo. In 2008, U.S. exports to Eritrea totaled just under $15 million, which is about 3% of Eritrea’s annual estimated imports of approximately $500 million. U.S. imports from Eritrea are even less significant, coming in at a whopping $129,000 in 2008. And whether or not the U.S. could enlist the U.N. or other countries in imposing new sanctions remains to be seen.

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Copyright © 2009 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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2 Comments:


I understood that Eritrea was removed from OFAC list of sanctioned countries. Was I wrong?

Comment by Florence Affatato on July 30th, 2009 @ 8:08 am

Eritrea has never been on the OFAC sanctions list, although there are some individual Eritreans on the SDN list.

Comment by Clif Burns on July 30th, 2009 @ 9:04 am