Government is relieved that the United States Treasury has announced that it will lift sanctions on Russian aluminium giant Rusal as some 500 employees in the local bauxite industry would have been affected in recent months, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge says.
“We, of course, are relieved to know that that action is not to continue in the form that it was originally intended. More than that, I cannot say at this point in time, because like you, I would have only heard what is planned over the news networks,” he said, when asked about the matter at a press conference at Takuba Lodge on Thursday.
According to Greenidge, the issue of the sanctions against Rusal was a complex one that was “very much a part of the problem of international diplomacy and tensions.”
The US Treasury in April, imposed sanctions against Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and eight companies in which he is a large shareholder, including Rusal, in response to what it termed “malign activities” by Russia. The sanctions sent the global aluminium markets into turmoil.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that in announcing the lifting of the sanctions, the US Treasury said that Deripaska will remain under sanctions, while Rusal, parent company Ent+ and energy firm EuroSibEnergo, have agreed to reduce Deripaska’s stakes in them as a condition of the lifting of the sanctions.
Greenidge said that the Government of Guyana together with the Government of Jamaica had engaged the US State Department with a view to ensuring that the actions taken by the US in respect of the sanctions against Deripaska, would not have negative implications for local workers.
“That has been going on. The US responded by extending the deadline by which they would invoke all the sanctions,” he said, adding that the news of the lifting of the sanctions was a relief.
Rusal owns 90 per cent of the Aroaima, Berbice-based Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. The company’s operations are located on the Berbice River between Kwakwani and Linden, with employees from those areas making up the majority of its workforce.
The Guyana government had previously expressed concern at the implications of the sanctions for Rusal’s local operations. The David Granger-led APNU+AFC government had established an inter-ministerial and union task force to holistically examine the way forward. It was feared that with investors forced to divest, the company would be forced to shut down the operations.
The US government had added Deripaska to its sanctions blacklist in retaliation for Russian interference in the US 2016 general elections.
