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Massachusetts Appeals Ruling on M
- Subject: Massachusetts Appeals Ruling on M
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 21:26:00
Subject: Massachusetts Appeals Ruling on Myanmar Trade Law
Asia:Myanmar
Massachusetts Appeals Ruling on
Myanmar Trade Law
Reuters
10-NOV-98
BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts will appeal a federal
judge's ruling that
declared unconstitutional its law penalizing companies doing
business with
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, officials said Tuesday.
"Massachusetts stands with-- not against-- the federal
government in its policy
toward the current Burma regime," Massachusetts Attorney
General Scott
Harshbarger said in announcing the appeal.
President Clinton slapped sanctions on Myanmar in May 1997,
banning new
investments by U.S. companies while allowing existing
business to continue.
Myanmar, ruled by the military, has had Nobel Peace laureate
Aung San Suu
Kyi under house arrest.
"The (U.S.) Constitution allows the states to choose not to
buy goods and
services from persons who do business with countries that
violate human rights,"
Harshbarger added.
The National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based group
of companies
that do business overseas, challenged the 1996 Massachusetts
law, which adds
10 percent onto bids for state contracts from companies
doing business with
Myanmar. The European Union filed a brief supporting the
council's position.
The EU and Japan are protesting the law before the World
Trade Organization.
The Clinton administration has pledged to defend the law
before the world trade
body.
Chief U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled on Nov. 4 that
Massachusetts'
Burma Law "unconstitutionally infringes on the federal
government's exclusive
authority to regulate foreign affairs ... State interests,
no matter how noble, do
not trump the federal government's exclusive foreign affairs
power."
His ruling, while binding only in Massachusetts, casts doubt
over the legality of
similar "selective-purchasing statutes" elsewhere. Some 20
cities, including New
York and San Francisco, have similar laws regarding trade
with Myanmar.
Frank Kittredge, president of the powerful Washington,
D.C.-based trade
council, welcomed the appeal.
"We have always wanted to take this case as far as we could
in the court
system," he said. A ruling by a federal appeals court would
be binding in the rest
of New England and Puerto Rico.
More than 30 companies including Textron Inc. and Johnson &
Johnson were
affected by the state's law, according to court papers.
U.S. cities enacted dozens of similar laws that helped
dismantle the apartheid
regime in South Africa during the 1980s. Other U.S. courts
have rejected legal
challenges to such laws.
"If selective purchasing had been banned 10 years ago,
(South African
President) Nelson Mandela might be still in prison today,"
said Massachusetts
Rep. Byron Rushing, a Democrat from Boston who wrote the
state's Burma
Law.
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