Last month, the United States and the European Union announced the relaxation of sanctions against Syria.
“It is time to shine. We all take them,” US President Donald Trump said in a speech that broke out Farah in Damascus.
After 14 years of war, 90 % of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line. Since the Assad regime decreased in December, the removal of sanctions imposed on the economy has been a top priority for transitional president Ahmed Al -Shara, the leader of the victorious rebellion; But Syria has been under severe restrictions in the United States since 1979 and its lifting will not be simple.
The main restrictions are the Civil Protection Law in Syria for the year 2019 and the 2003 Lebanese Accountability and Sovereignty Law (SALSA). Congress can only be completely canceled, and it will take months at best. The executive authority can issue temporary exemptions, as the Treasury did in May, but the real impact on Syrian companies and hostile institutions is still limited.
“The complete abolition of the laws of Caesar and Salsa, not just its temporary suspension, can open the door for long -term investment,” says Samir Aita, head of the Arab Economists Department, a Paris -based research reservoir.
For Syrian banks, which are still largely inverted from global financial networks, re -joining the rapid system of transferring and reporting them in reporting the correspondent banking relations are first on the agenda. “The Syrian market is very promising, it is almost a virgin.” In Europe, the process is less complicated. Last month, the European Council filed sanctions on many Syrian companies operating in the main sectors such as oil production, agriculture, financing, construction, communications and the media. Depending on how the situation in Syria has evolved, other companies can be deleted in the coming months. However, restrictions on industries that constitute security concerns, such as arms sales, will remain.
