Syria has banned most imports except raw materials and grains, local businessmen said on Saturday, in a move to preserve foreign currency reserves as pressure grows from a popular rebellion and Western sanctions against Syria’s rulers.
The government decreed on Thursday that all imports carrying a tariff over 5 percent were banned, according to businessmen and traders in Damascus who were contacted by journalists.
This means imports of most foreign goods, from electrical goods to cars and luxury items.
The ban suggests that Syria is feeling the effect of foreign sanctions intended to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end a six-month military crackdown that has killed 2,700 people, according to UN estimates.
On Saturday, the EU imposed sanctions on Syria’s main mobile phone operator Syriatel and its largest private company, Cham Holding.
The sanctions also targeted a television station, Addounia TV, and three construction and investment firms linked to the Syrian military, according to the EU’s Official Journal.
The moves complement an embargo on imports of Syrian crude oil to the bloc — Syria’s main market — and a ban on EU firms investing in Syria’s oil industry, agreed to last week with the aim of reducing Assad’s access to foreign currency.
Washington has gone further, freezing all Syrian assets in the US and barring US citizens from making new investments in Syria.
Analysts and traders say Syria’s oil exports have almost ground to a halt. In addition, it appears likely to run short of petroleum products for heating, electricity production and transport.
Syrian Minister of Economy and Trade Mohammed Nidal al-Shaar was quoted in the local press on Saturday as saying that the import ban was “preventive and temporary.”
He said the ban was aimed at “preserving foreign reserves and redirecting [them] to low-income sectors of the population.”
“It won’t affect the imports of raw materials or foodstuffs and all the essential goods that citizens need in their daily life,” Shaar added.
Grain bought by the state for local consumption is among items unaffected by the ban.
In the five years prior to the uprising, Syria had relaxed its previous Soviet-style ban on imports.
Despite high import tariffs, there has been huge demand for foreign consumer goods, especially cars, which began to enter the country for the first time in decades.
Like other foreign media, Reuters is banned from Syria, but traders contacted from abroad said the import ban would stoke inflation and further erode falling business confidence.
Some businessmen said it was a sign that the unrest was beginning to exact a heavier toll than was being acknowledged by authorities, who say Syria’s economy has been protected by its lack of debt and insulation from capital markets.
“There is no selling or buying. It’s so bad now that traders and businessmen are not selling for cash or credit. Prices of existing foreign imports will now soar,” said a car dealer in Damascus’ Sabaa Bahrat commercial area, who preferred not to give his name.
Along with hurting industrial output, the unrest has dealt a big blow to a tourism industry that used to account for 12 percent of foreign revenue, economists and businesspeople said.
Some businesspeople that, even before the ban, merchants had already reduced letters of credit for imports as demand fell. They said traders and even government agencies were hoarding foreign currency as worries rose that new measures to cushion the economy from sanctions could hit the Syrian pound.
“This move will only worsen the situation and add to the uncertainty,” said another businessman in the Halabouni district in the capital.
“[Investors and traders] ... are holding tight and not buying any goods ... but [also] not panicking so far,” he said.
Economists and bankers say Syria’s foreign reserves have been falling as the central bank sells hard currency to try to stop the Syrian pound falling on the black market.
The official rate is 47.4 Syrian pounds to the US dollar, but on the black market a US dollar costs 51 pounds or more.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not