Washington: The US has exempted China from its tough new sanctions on Iranian oil trade which came into force on Friday, drawing strong reaction from top lawmakers who called the move ‘‘disappointing’’ and a ‘‘free pass’’ to Beijing.
China along with Singapore were added to the list of countries like India and Germany which have been given the necessary waiver on Thursday. ‘‘I have made the determination that two additional countries, China and Singapore, have significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran,’’ Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement. As a result, the Iran Sanctions Act will not apply to their financial institutions for a potentially renewable period of 180 days, she said.
‘‘A total of 20 world economies have now qualified for such an exception. Their cumulative actions are a clear demonstration to Iran’s government that Iran’s continued violation of its international nuclear obligations carries an enormous economic cost,’’ she said. Top US lawmakers, however, expressed their disappointment over the Obama administration’s decision to grant exemption to China from Iranian sanctions. ‘‘I am deeply disappointed by the Obama administration’s decision to issue an exemption to China for its purchases of Iranian oil,’’ Senator Joe Lieberman said in a statement. ‘‘I hope we will use the sanctions bill currently pending before a House-Senate conference committee to clarify the meaning of ‘significant reduction’,’’ he said. Senator Robert Menendez, in a statement, said that Clinton has assured him that at this time China has met the significant reduction standard required by the law and recent precedent to qualify for an exemption from sanctions. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official referring to a statement on a Chinese website noted that there would be a significant reduction in crude oil imports from Iran for 2012. ‘‘As is China’s practice, its imports of crude oil will be reflected in China’s customs data, which is publicly reported on a monthly basis. We will, of course, continue to monitor multiple data sources on this subject. China has taken these actions for its own commercial and energy security reasons,’’ the official said. Another senior administration official also noted that China has taken a 25 per cent year-on-year reduction between January and May of its crude oil imports. ‘‘What we have now also is what we believe to be an authoritative statement on this China energy website, where the Chinese are indicating that a structural change in their crude oil imports will allow for these types of reductions,’’ he said. (PTI)