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Canada Lifts Restrictions On Trade With Belarus

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Canada Lifts Restrictions On Trade With Belarus

Up to July 12, only Canada and Belarus remain on Canada's sanctions list.

The process of lifting Canadian sanctions from Belarus, which began more than a year ago, will end on July 12, the Canadian government website reports.

Belarus will be excluded from the list of countries for export to which the permission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada (Area Control List) is needed. Today only Belarus and North Korea are there.

Canada imposed economic sanctions against Belarus in December 2006. Ottawa explained its decision by wanting to put pressure on Belarus’ leadership because of human rights violations.

In May 2016, the Canadian Foreign Ministry informed that sanctions would be lifted "in response to recent positive developments in Belarus." The department specified that they bear in view Minsk’s constructive role in the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, the holding of presidential "elections" in October 2015, which were carried out without "violence and intimidation, as it was during the previous elections" and "release of political prisoners".

"This decision is consistent with the measures taken by the United States and the European Union in October 2015 (the US and the EU put freeze on the sanctions – Ed.)," – the ministry reported last year.

Until recently, Canada was represented in Belarus by a temporary solicitor. On December 13, 2016, Lukashenka received the credentials of the Ambassador of Canada to Belarus Stephen de Bora.

Human rights defenders are concerned

Human Rights Watch notes that, despite the "friendly rhetoric", there is no real improvement in the situation with human rights in Belarus.

The organization recalls that Belarus remains the only European country, which still has the death penalty and which is not going to impose a moratorium on it.

"The persecution of human rights defenders and unsympathetic journalists on false accusations continues," – the Human Rights Watch World Report 2017, published on January 29, says. The organization also focuses on the legislation that restricts freedom of expression, expanding the notion "extremism".

Amnesty International recalls that Belarus keeps refusing to cooperate with the UN special rapporteur on human rights and continues to spy on its citizens.

"The legal framework governing secret surveillance allows the authorities to conduct large-scale surveillance over the citizens with little or no basis," – the Amnesty report 2016-17 says.

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