Barely a week passes without Washington condemning Syria for allegedly engaging in some nefarious activity. The latest two hits came in the form of an American travel ban on a number of pro-Syrian Lebanese politicians, along with the release of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s annual name and shame list of companies doing business in state sponsors of terrorism, of which Syria is an inaugural member. Yet despite much political posturing from Washington, the raft of economic sanctions unleashed by US President George Bush have had little impact on US-Syrian trade. Trade between two countries tripled from 2005 to 2006 and is showing healthy gains in the first quarter of this year. Furthermore, America imports more than 10 times the value of goods from Syria as does Damascus’ high profile ally Iran, with total exports to the Islamic republic weighing in at a mere $17.8 million, compared to $209
