The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– Ghost sanctions –
Sanctions can take the form of hitting specific organisations and individuals such as high-ranking officials or military officers with travel bans and asset freezes, or broader measures putting whole economic sectors under embargo.
In the case of Russia, heavily sanctioned in 2014 for supporting pro-Kremlin separatists in eastern Ukraine, EU citizens and companies are barred from investing in Russian finance or doing business with the country’s banks, oil companies and defence firms.
For North Korea, as well as materials that could be used to further its nuclear and ballistic missile programme, the EU also bans the export of coal, steel and luxury goods popular with the Pyongyang elite.
The new map, due to go online on Friday, allows users to click on countries to see what sanctions are in force and also to search by sector — oil, weapons, finance and so on — and individual names.
The EU hopes this will clear up confusion around measures in places like Moldova, where a sanctions blacklist is technically in force, but has no entries.
“It has no impact, but if you’re not familiar with this, this is deterring you from doing business with the country, because you don’t know if you can expect an impact on your business,” Hiio explained.
Sanctions expert David Cortright of the Kroc Institute of Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, in the United States, said the map was “interesting and probably useful” but warned that “undercompliance” was a bigger problem than “overcompliance”.
“Companies are always looking for loopholes to be able to trade in some way and the targets are always changing names, companies reincorporating under different names, so it’s hard to track them,” he told AFP.
Cortright said the North Koreans are “masters” at dodging sanctions, using techniques such as setting up fake companies in China to channel goods and funds.
