Obama in Beijing(archives)
Photo: Reuters
Report: Chinese firms evade US Iran sanctions
Wall Street Journal says Chinese companies accused of selling missile technology to Tehran continue to make illegal shipments to US
Chinese companies accused of selling missile technology to Iran have managed to get around a US trade ban, with millions of dollars worth of goods from these companies shipped to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
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One Chinese firm, a unit of state-owned China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp., has made nearly 300 illegal shipments to US firms since a ban was imposed on CPMIEC and its affiliates in mid-2006, the newspaper said, citing an analysis of shipping records by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
The US companies probably didn't know they were trading with banned entities, the newspaper said.
Shipments from China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp. were worth millions of dollars in goods ranging from anchors to toys. The Chinese firm often acted as a shipping intermediary, which is also banned under a 2006 US presidential order.
The Obama administration, increasingly frustrated by Iran's defiance over its nuclear program, is considering new sanctions focused on Iran's leadership rather than broad-based penalties that could harm the protest movement.
The illegal Chinese shipments suggest US sanctions have become difficult to enforce, the newspaper said.
The report quoted Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin project: "We spend a lot of time convincing other countries that we need tighter sanctions on Iran when we need to better enforce our own laws already on the books."
