sanctions-busting?

[nome1984]

Hello, everyone! The sentence below is from the Economist-12.2. The word "sanctions-busting" is not easy to understand. Is it something related to bribe? Please tell me the exact meaning!
Thanks in advance!

A report on alleged sanctions-busting in Iraq by the AWB (formerly the Australian Wheat Board) found it had paid $221m in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime.

 

[difficult cuss]

Well sanctions (note, not the other form of sanction which is to permit) are an embargo, busting them would be to break the rule. The kickback is the bribe.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sanctions

 

[winklepicker]

More commonly 'sanction-busting'. If you check 'sanction' in the dictionary above you'll see that one of its meanings is where one country (or several) imposes a blockade on another. Examples would be sanctions imposed on apartheid South Africa, sanctions imposed on Saddam's Iraq, etc, and could include trade sanctions (limited or otherwise - 'food for oil'), sporting sanctions, or others. In the case of trade sanctions, banned commodities might be covertly imported or exported. The sanctions could be 'busted'. Hence 'sanction-busting'.

 

[nome1984]

Thanks for answering.
It seems I misunderstood that.