Massachusetts agrees on sanctions for RI
Massachusetts agrees on sanctions for RI
BOSTON (Reuter): A Massachusetts state legislative committee
Thursday approved a measure that would impose sanctions against
companies that do business with Indonesia.
The Massachusetts Committee on State Administration approved
the measure, which its sponsor, state Senator Marc Pacheco, said
was amended to make it conform to the World Trade Organization's
Government Procurement Act.
Pacheco said he hoped the bill, which must now go to the
state's House of Representatives, would send a strong message to
Indonesia that they must change their ways.
Massachusetts passed a similar measure in 1996 that bans the
state from doing business with firms that do business with Burma,
also known as Myanmar. That law, which went into effect on Jan.1,
has sparked an international furor among U.S. trading partners.
The European Union and Japan have protested to Washington
about the Myanmarese law and federal officials have met with
Massachusetts legislators in hopes of having them change the
measure.
A battle before the WTO still looms and a spokesman for
Massachusetts State Attorney General Scott Harshbarger said his
office stands ready to defend the Burma bill.
The Indonesia legislation was amended to exempt individual
purchasing contracts of more than $500,000 and construction
contracts of more than $7 million to avoid any potential
violations of the WTO act.
The measure prohibits Massachusetts state agencies from
contracting with companies that conduct business in Indonesia.
"Whether it has been imposing sanction on South Africa or
Myanmar, Massachusetts has a history of taking a leadership role
in issues like this and several other states around the country
have already begun to file legislation modeled after the
Massachusetts bill," Pacheco said.
If the measure passes both houses of the state legislature,
the ban would remain in effect until Indonesia complies with
United Nations resolutions calling for self determination in East
Timor.