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US yet to draft law on sanctions; bankers, exporters worried

C K Arora in Washington

US bankers and exporters to India are worried over their future trade and business prospects for want of regulations that govern the implementation of the Proliferation Prevention Act, 1994, under which President Bill Clinton last week slapped far-reaching economic sanctions on India in the wake of its nuclear weapons tests.

The law, also known as the Glenn-Symington Amendment, was passed on April 30, 1994, and its regulations should have been ready within 90 days after it had been approved by Congress. According to reports, officials have started writing the law only after the invocation of the legal provision.

Indications are that the concerned departments were busy with drawing up rules and regulations and are expected to be ready by the middle of this week.

The uncertainty over what the complex law means and how it will be applied, has touched off a scramble among US exporters and banks to find out how the sanctions will affect them, says the Journal of Commerce.

Lobbyists have been working non-stop to influence how the rules are written and how much trade will be cut off. Billions of dollars in business were on the line.

It says US officials were unable to tell India in advance what impact the sanctions would have, because they never considered the question themselves.

As a result, India's leaders may have under-estimated the economic impact of going nuclear, the daily adds.

UNI

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