Myanmar garment exports 'dire' because of US sanctions
Monday, 25 June 2007
YANGON, June 24 (AFP): Myanmar's garment exports declined again last year under the weight of US sanctions, an industry group said, amid questions about whether the measures will persuade the military regime to reform.
"Our garment exports are still going down because of the US sanctions. There's been no recovery yet, even though we have tried to turn things around," an official of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association told the news agency.
"The situation is dire. We've made no improvement at all," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
Myanmar exported 280 million dollars worth of garments in 2006, down more than 12 per cent from the previous year's exports of 320 million dollars, he said.
Garment exports reached a high of 850 million dollars in 2001 but exports plunged after the United States toughened sanctions against the military government in 2003, in protest at the junta's detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel peace laureate was arrested after a pro-government mob ambushed her convoy in May 2003, in an attack that her National League for Democracy party says left nearly 100 dead.
The military then put her under house arrest for the third time. She has spent a total of nearly 12 years in detention since her first arrest in 1989.
Sanctions were first imposed in the mid-1990s, when Aung San Suu Kyi urged the world to put pressure on the junta to respect results of 1990 elections won by her party.
The United States now has a total ban on Myanmar exports, while the European Union maintains targeted measures including a travel ban on the junta, an arms embargo, and a ban on investment in state companies.
But US sanctions dealt an especially severe blow to the country's textile industry, costing some 80,000 jobs as factories closed their doors with the loss of their largest market, according to officials and analysts.
The official with the industry group said Myanmar continues to export textiles to Japan, South Africa and Latin America.
"We have to continue to work in the garment sector anyway, although our exports aren't much." he said.
A US senator last week asked the Congress to renew sanctions for another year, saying the regime was getting more reckless and the humanitarian situation in the country was worsening.
Within Southeast Asia, where there is growing frustration at Myanmar's failure to reform, there are also questions about the effectiveness of sanctions, which after a decade have failed to produce any tangible political change.
The secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said earlier in June that the economic penalties weren't working.
"They (the junta) are happy being isolated because they are left alone to do whatever they want to do," Ong Keng Yong told reporters at a meeting in Malaysia.
"What we are saying is perhaps we should look at some other ways of doing it instead of just (keeping) on applying sanctions," he said.
With Myanmar's neighbours China, India and Thailand more than happy to do business with the regime, some analysts argue that the penalties have been too blunted to work.
"Economic sanctions are not effective in terms of achieving desirable results, such as democratisation and an end to human rights abuses," said Aung Naing Oo, a Thailand-based Myanmar analyst.
"If China and India joined international sanctions against Burma, then we could see effective results," he said, using the country's former name.
"But as long as Burma has friendly relations with China and India, this won't happen."
"Our garment exports are still going down because of the US sanctions. There's been no recovery yet, even though we have tried to turn things around," an official of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association told the news agency.
"The situation is dire. We've made no improvement at all," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
Myanmar exported 280 million dollars worth of garments in 2006, down more than 12 per cent from the previous year's exports of 320 million dollars, he said.
Garment exports reached a high of 850 million dollars in 2001 but exports plunged after the United States toughened sanctions against the military government in 2003, in protest at the junta's detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel peace laureate was arrested after a pro-government mob ambushed her convoy in May 2003, in an attack that her National League for Democracy party says left nearly 100 dead.
The military then put her under house arrest for the third time. She has spent a total of nearly 12 years in detention since her first arrest in 1989.
Sanctions were first imposed in the mid-1990s, when Aung San Suu Kyi urged the world to put pressure on the junta to respect results of 1990 elections won by her party.
The United States now has a total ban on Myanmar exports, while the European Union maintains targeted measures including a travel ban on the junta, an arms embargo, and a ban on investment in state companies.
But US sanctions dealt an especially severe blow to the country's textile industry, costing some 80,000 jobs as factories closed their doors with the loss of their largest market, according to officials and analysts.
The official with the industry group said Myanmar continues to export textiles to Japan, South Africa and Latin America.
"We have to continue to work in the garment sector anyway, although our exports aren't much." he said.
A US senator last week asked the Congress to renew sanctions for another year, saying the regime was getting more reckless and the humanitarian situation in the country was worsening.
Within Southeast Asia, where there is growing frustration at Myanmar's failure to reform, there are also questions about the effectiveness of sanctions, which after a decade have failed to produce any tangible political change.
The secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said earlier in June that the economic penalties weren't working.
"They (the junta) are happy being isolated because they are left alone to do whatever they want to do," Ong Keng Yong told reporters at a meeting in Malaysia.
"What we are saying is perhaps we should look at some other ways of doing it instead of just (keeping) on applying sanctions," he said.
With Myanmar's neighbours China, India and Thailand more than happy to do business with the regime, some analysts argue that the penalties have been too blunted to work.
"Economic sanctions are not effective in terms of achieving desirable results, such as democratisation and an end to human rights abuses," said Aung Naing Oo, a Thailand-based Myanmar analyst.
"If China and India joined international sanctions against Burma, then we could see effective results," he said, using the country's former name.
"But as long as Burma has friendly relations with China and India, this won't happen."