[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 42 (Monday, October 22, 2007)]
[Pages 1377-1378]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Reporting on Blocking Property and Prohibiting 
Certain Transactions Related to Burma

October 18, 2007

To the Congress of the United States:

    Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an 
Executive Order (the ``Order'') that expands the scope of the national 
emergency declared in Executive Order 13047 of May 20, 1997, and takes 
additional steps with respect to that national emergency.
    In 1997, the United States put in place a prohibition on new 
investment in Burma in response to the Government of Burma's large-scale 
repression of the democratic opposition in that country. On July 28, 
2003, those sanctions were expanded by steps taken in Executive Order 
13310, which contained prohibitions implementing sections 3 and 4 of the 
Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-61) and 
supplemented that Act with additional restrictions. I have now 
determined that the Government of Burma's continued repression of the 
democratic opposition in Burma, manifested most recently in the violent 
response to peaceful demonstrations, the commission of human rights 
abuses related to political repression, and engagement in public 
corruption, including by diverting or misusing Burmese public assets or 
by misusing public authority, warrant an expansion of the existing 
sanctions.

[[Page 1378]]

    The order incorporates existing designation criteria set forth in 
Executive Order 13310, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury, after 
consultation with the Secretary of State, to designate any person 
determined to be a senior official of the Government of Burma, the State 
Peace and Development Council of Burma, the Union Solidarity and 
Development Association of Burma, or any successor entity to any of the 
foregoing. The order blocks the property and interests in property in 
the United States of persons listed in the Annex to the order and 
provides additional criteria for designations of persons determined by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Secretary of 
State, to be responsible for, or to have participated in, human rights 
abuses related to political repression in Burma; to be engaged, or to 
have engaged, in activities facilitating public corruption by senior 
officials of the Government of Burma; to have materially assisted, 
sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical 
support for, or goods or services in support of, the Government of 
Burma, the State Peace and Development Council of Burma, the Union 
Solidarity and Development Association of Burma, any successor entity to 
any of the foregoing, any senior official of any of the foregoing, or 
any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant 
to Executive Order 13310 or section 1(b)(i)-(v) of the order; to be 
owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on 
behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and 
interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13310 or 
section 1(b)(i)-(v) of the order; or to be a spouse or dependent child 
of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked 
pursuant to the order or Executive Order 13310.
    The order leaves in place the existing prohibitions on new 
investment, the exportation or reexportation to Burma of financial 
services, and the importation of any article that is a product of Burma, 
which were put into effect in Executive Order 13047 and Executive Order 
13310.
    I delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation 
with the Secretary of State, the authority to take such actions, 
including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all 
powers granted to the President by IEEPA and section 4 of the Burmese 
Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 as may be necessary to carry out the 
purposes of the order.
    I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 October 18, 2007.

Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 19.