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AP-Mass. Burma law supporters stret



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AP-Mass. Burma law supporters stretch from coast to coast 

Mass. Burma law supporters stretch from coast to coast
Posted on 10/20/99, 12:32 PM CST. Email this story to a friend.
Source: AP.
Posted by: ShweInc NEWs

By Leslie Miller, Associated Press, 10/20/99 02:18

BOSTON (AP) Fourteen states, including New Hampshire, planned to file a
brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to restore a Massachusetts law
preventing the state from doing business with companies that deal with
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

The states fear they'll be forced to trade with countries run by brutal
regimes if the high court upholds a lower court decision striking down the
Massachusetts law. The brief was to be filed today.

Burma's military dictatorship has been accused of drug trafficking, torture
and using slave labor.

Dozens of states, counties and municipalities have imposed sanctions on
companies that deal with repressive governments in Nigeria, China, Cuba or
Myanmar. Others forbid pension funds from investing in companies in Northern
Ireland that discriminate on the basis of religion.

Critics say such ''freelance foreign policy'' infringes on the federal
government's ability to deal with its allies and enemies.

In November, U.S District Court Judge Joseph Tauro struck down the
Massachusetts law because, he wrote, it ''impermissibly infringes on the
federal government's power to regulate foreign affairs.'' The Circuit Court
of Appeals agreed.

Now, Massachusetts is asking the Supreme Court to hear a case involving
local sanction laws for the first time ever.

''If they take the case it would have a significant effect on procurement
laws, whichever way they come out,'' said Assistant Attorney General Thomas
Barnico.

The case pitted the state's 1996 Burma law against business groups seeking
to strike down local sanction laws.

The initial lawsuit was brought in U.S. District Court in 1998 by the
National Foreign Trade Council, which represents nearly 600 major U.S.
corporations.

The trade group has until Oct. 27 to file a brief that argues for or against
the high court hearing the case.

The number of groups signing on to briefs supporting Massachusetts including
the 14 states, 11 cities and counties, 44 nonprofits and 54 members of
Congress from both sides of the aisle indicates the widespread interest in
resolving the question, Barnico said.

''We've shown a great deal of national interest in the question and the
businesses might agree,'' Barnico said. ''Then it's up to the court to
decide whether it ought to hear the issue now or wait for it to develop
further in other courts in other parts of the country.''

Opposition to Massachusetts' Burma law has spread beyond the United States.
The World Trade Organization has opposed the law, and a group of activists
plan to protest that stance at the so-called ''Protest of the Century'' in
Seattle during the WTO Ministerial Conference Nov. 30-Dec. 3.

The 14 states filing on behalf of Massachusetts are: Arkansas, California,
Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North
Dakota, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Also filing are 11 local governments, including New York City; Alameda
County, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Cruz,
Calif.; Boulder, Colo.; Carboro, N.C.; Newton; and Philadelphia.