Lee Morgenbesser looks at the case for and against dropping economic restrictions on Myanmar.

Two weeks ago the Obama administration declared that it will drop all remaining economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar.

Since 1997, when the sanctions were established as a response to the gross human rights abuses being committed by the country’s ruling junta, they have prevented any tangible trade between the two countries.

During his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, who was visiting Washington for the first time as Myanmar’s de facto leader, President Obama sought to reward the progress the Southeast Asian nation had made towards democracy.

“The United States is now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time,” he said, “It is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government.”

But is lifting the sanctions the right thing to do?

Please click here to read the full “Lifting US sanctions: right or wrong?” article in the New Mandala by Griffith Asia Institute Research Fellow Dr Lee Morgenbesser