EU Said to Move Toward Curbs on Syrian Central Bank, Metals
February 08, 2012, 9:48 AM ESTBy James G. Neuger and Nicholas Larkin
(Adds precious metals supply from fourth paragraph.)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- European Union governments are moving toward stiffer sanctions on Syria, including a freeze on the central bank’s assets and a ban on imports of phosphates and precious metals from the country, an EU official said.
A consensus exists in the 27-nation bloc to toughen the sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with details to be agreed in time for approval on Feb. 27 by EU foreign ministers, the official told reporters in Brussels today on condition of anonymity.
Taking sanctions on Iran’s central bank as a model, the EU is working to craft the Syrian monetary curbs so as not to hobble Syria’s trade completely, the official said.
A cutoff of phosphate imports will shut down a key source of revenue for the regime because Syria relies on European customers for 40 percent of its sales, the official said. The nation doesn’t produce any “commercial amounts” of precious metals, according to Solna, Sweden-based researcher Raw Materials Group.
The official gave no figures for Syria’s income from gold and other precious metals slated for the ban.
Gold scrap supply from Syria and Iraq was a combined 36.4 metric tons in 2010, accounting for about 2.2 percent of global recycling, according to researcher Thomson Reuters GFMS. Total world supply was 4,334 tons in 2010, the data show. Bullion climbed for an 11th consecutive year in 2011 and reached a record $1,921.15 an ounce in London in September.
‘Not Significant’
“It’s not significant from a precious metal demand perspective,” because Syria produces little of the metals, said Daniel Brebner, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG in London. “It may add to perceptions of risk in the region, which could help to keep gold supported.”
By contrast, a proposal by one EU government for a ban on commercial flights to and from Syria has found little support, said the official. He didn’t identify the government behind the idea.
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--Editor: John Deane
To contact the reporters on this story: James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net; Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
