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Canada says Libya sanctions won’t affect firms

01 March 2011 04:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The sanctions that Canada has imposed on Libya do not affect the commercial operations of firms such as engineering company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc, government House Leader John Baird said on Monday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Baird also said Ottawa had blocked unspecified financial dealings that the Libyan government had planned to carry out in Canada. He declined to give further details.
Canada announced late on Sunday that it would "impose an asset freeze on, and a prohibition of financial transactions with the government of Libya, its institutions and agencies, including the Libyan Central Bank".
SNC-Lavalin and oil firm Suncor Energy Inc both have operations in Libya. Baird said the sanctions would not stop the companies from doing business there.
"This doesn’t eliminate commercial activities," he told reporters.
"We are hoping that the hard line taken by the international community, and the even harder line taken by our government against the current Libyan regime, will bring about change quickly, and the negative impact of these sanctions will be limited and will be very short-term," he said.
Suncor said last week that it had evacuated all its expatriate staff in Libya and that field operations were shut down. The company produced nearly 35,000 barrels of oil a day in Libya in the fourth quarter.
A spokeswoman for SNC-Lavalin -- whose Libyan projects include a prison, a water pipeline and an airport -- said the firm was waiting for more details on the sanctions before commenting.
Asked what restrictions Canadian companies would face, Baird said: "They can operate there, they can operate commercially. What they can’t do is operate financially with either the Libyan government or the central bank of Libya."