US-Syrian Trade Booming Despite Sanctions
Syria Media Report, 27-May-09
US-Syrian Trade Booming Despite Sanctions
Syria Media Report, 27-May-09
Trade between Syria and the United States has increased substantially in the past year, said pro-government website Syria Steps in a May 19 article.
The website said that in 2008, there was around a billion US dollars worth of trade between the two countries – a sharp increase from 2007, when this figure was around 600 million US dollars.
The US has imposed economic sanctions against Damascus since 2004, banning all exports to Syria, except for food and medicine.
The website said that Syrian imports from the US, which consisted mainly of wheat and corn, were worth 300 million US dollars.
There has been a sharp increase from previous years because a severe drought in Syria for the past three years has hit crop production in the country hard, it added.
Meanwhile, Syrian exports to the US – which include petroleum products, food, textiles and handicrafts – reached 700 million dollars, added the website.
The report predicted a decrease in the value of trade between the two states in 2009, as a result of the global financial crunch.
These figures differ markedly from those published by the official US census bureau which posts on its website that American exports to Syria reached 400 million dollars in 2008, while imports were of the order of 350 million.
