USA blacklists
240 Indian units
Sanctions to focus
on N-needs
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (ANI,
PTI, UNI) — The USA has brought out a list of 240
Indian and over 140 Pakistani government agencies and
companies which have been barred from importing American
products.
A senior State Department
official told a special briefing for South Asian
journalists that the lists include government agencies
and their affiliated lease companies.
The publication of the
list would not have any adverse impact on the on-going
talks between the US, Pakistani and Indian officials, the
official added.
The Nuclear Power
Corporation of India, Bharat Earth Movers Limited, Indian
Space Research Organisation, Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
are among 40 Indian entities along with their 200
subsidiaries barred by the USA from having any business
link with US companies.
Besides the Indian
companies, 46 Pakistani government and private firms
along with some 100 subsidiaries have also been
blacklisted by the US Commerce Department, which formally
published the list yesterday in pursuance of US economic
sanctions imposed on the two countries following their
May nuclear tests.
"Publishing this list
will ease the burden on US exporters by clarifying their
responsibilities and helping them to comply with the
sanctions," Commerce Assistant Secretary for Export
Administration Roger Majak said.
"We compiled this
list after a thorough assessment of the best available
information about these entities and the Indian and
Pakistani weapons programme," he said.
The Pakistani government
and private companies, blacklisted, include Kahuta’s
Khan Research Laboratories, Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission, Centre for Nuclear Studies, Islamabad, Chasma
Nuclear Power Plant and Khushab Reactor.
The action was in
pursuance of the Glenn Amendment, an American law, under
which the administration had slapped economic sanctions
on India and Pakistan in protest against their nuclear
tests in May.
The US Commerce
Department, which issued the list, said the announcement,
specified Indian and Pakistani entities believed to have
been involved in Indian or Pakistani nuclear, missile and
military programmes. It would facilitate implementation
of the sanctions by helping US exporters to conduct trade
in a transparent environment.
Under the sanctions, the
identified agencies and companies would be barred from
buying goods that might have nuclear or military
applications, it adds.
Last week the USA had
ordered a relaxation in the sanctions against the two
countries, acknowledging progress in the
non-proliferation dialogue that US Deputy Secretary of
State Strobe Talbott has been having with representatives
of India and Pakistan since the first week of June.
The next round is
scheduled for November 19 in Rome where Planning
Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh will participate
as special envoy of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee. Mr
Talbott will represent the USA.
US officials maintained
that naming of the agencies and companies did not mean
fresh sanctions. The action mandated by the Glenn
Amendment would clarify the situation for American
businesses so that non-lethal trade activities could
continue unhindered following the lifting of economic
sanctions.
"The list will make
it clear to our companies what kind of trade is
prohibited so that they won’t apply for licences
which will be denied," a senior administration
official said.
He was, however, unable to
clarify the position of the US offices of these companies
and people working for them. Some of the entities like
the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) maintain
offices in New York.
"We know this list
will stir fresh controversy, but we have no choice but to
implement the law. It is not a hit list or a black list.
This should not derail or present an obstacle in the
progress of the non-proliferation dialogue that the USA
has been having with the two countries," he added.
Meanwhile, officials
clarified that under the sanctions lifted last week, the
US private banks would be permitted to lend to both
government and non-government agencies and companies.
The entity list has about
20 nuclear-related agencies. Prominent among them are the
Atomic Energy Commission and Atomic Energy Regulatory
Board (both in Mumbai), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic
Research, Fast Breeder Test Reactor. Fast Reactor Fuel
Reprocessing Plant, Kalpakkam Reprocessing Plant, Kamini
Research Reactor and Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (all
in Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu), Nuclear Fuel Research
Complex, (Hyderabad) and Saha Institute of Nuclear
Physics Calcutta."
The Department of Space
and Indian Space Research Organisation (Bangalore) have
also been singled out for the denial of US goods.
Almost all Defence-related
installations figure in the list. These include the
Defence Research and Development Organisation (New
Delhi), Defence Laboratory (Jodhpur), Defence Research
and Development Establishment (Gwalior) and Missile
Development Complex and Defence Research and Development
Laboratory (Hyderabad).
India’s
paragovernmental and private entities involved in nuclear
or missile activities have also been included in the US
list. Prominent among them are: Baroda Ammonia Plant,
Gujarat Fertilisers, Bharat Dynamics, Bharat Earth
Movers, Bharat Electronics Limited, Fertiliser
Corporation of India, who would no more be able to buy
goods of their choice from the United States.
Kirloskar Brothers, Larsen
and Toubro, Mishra Dhatu Nigam, Godrej and Boyce
Manufacturing Limited Ramakrishna Engineering Works are
also placed on the entities list.
Also affected are Indian
government entities involved in conventional military
activities. These include ordinance factories and
equipment factories.
PTI: Democratic
Congressman Frank Pallone, founder of the Congressional
caucus on India, has criticised Clinton
administration’s discrimination against India while
waiving economic sanctions.
By allowing World Bank
loans to Pakistan and staying the same to India, the USA
has discriminated against New Delhi while rewarding
Islamabad, which continues to support terrorist
insurgency in Kashmir, Pallone said in a statement.
He said provisions of the
Clinton administration’s sanctions relief package
for India and Pakistan fall short of the even-handed
approach to the region that the USA should pursue.
Pallone said the terms of
the administration’s package concerning
international financial institutions are more favourable
to Pakistan than India.
The decision to support
lending by these bodies for non-basic human needs for
Pakistan alone "essentially rewards Pakistan for its
financial mismanagement."
In addition, Pallone said
"New Delhi has actually gone further than Pakistan
in terms of non-proliferation, making a no-first-strike
pledge that Islamabad has thus far refused to make."
"Given that the goal
of the sanctions in the first place was to reduce
international tensions and promote greater stability, we
should be rewarding steps towards peace," he said.
India has signalled its
willingness to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT) and has renounced first use of nuclear weapons.
"I understand the
serious depths of Pakistan’s economic crisis. But it
seems misguided to be granting more favourable terms to
Pakistan, a country that contributes to instability,
while mismanaging its domestic economy," he said.
Pallone said in general he
supports the Clinton administration’s decision to
waive the sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan earlier
this year.
UNITED NATIONS: India
has got a shot in the arm with a UN committee endorsing
its resolution asking the five traditional nuclear
weapons states to undertake "immediate and
urgent" steps to reduce risks of unintentional and
accidental use of nuclear arsenals.
The nuclear states,
contentions that they had already taken such steps were
rejected by a vast majority of member states of the
Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISC).
The resolution, which came
a day after the committee deplored India and Pakistan for
their nuclear tests, found wide support among developing
nations and was adopted by 68 votes to 44, with 12
abstentions.
The Indian resolution
calls for review of nuclear doctrines and stresses that
the "hair-trigger" alert of nuclear weapons
carries unacceptable risks of unintentional or accidental
use of nuclear weapons which will have catastrophic
consequences for mankind.
Introducing the resolution
at the DISC, Indian Ambassador to disarmament conference
in Geneva, Savitri Kunadi, said the operational
consideration still accorded to nuclear weapons after the
cold war is dangerous and constitutes a risk to humanity.
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