The State Department's Rand Beers said in testimony before a Senate subcommittee March 1 that two countries, Haiti and Cambodia, failed to meet certification standards, but would not be subject to possible sanctions because of national security considerations. However, Afghanistan and Myanmar, also known as Burma, were decertified without a national security waiver. Beers, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said those countries certified as fully cooperating with the United States on drugs were the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, the People's Republic of China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.
Certification is a straightforward procedure.
If the president does not certify a government, it is ineligible for most forms of U.S. assistance, with the exception of humanitarian and anti-drug, aid. The certification process is a statutory requirement. The law provides a waiver for those countries which, because of their vital interest to the United States, should be exempted from the sanctions related to a denial of certification. Most governments are now aware that U.S. law requires the president to provide this annual assessment of counternarcotics cooperation. Many governments resent what they describe as a unilateral, subjective assessment of their performance, with no reciprocal accountability from the United States.