OFAC issues Myanmar business advisory
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) has issued a multi-departmental advisory document ‘to inform individuals, businesses, financial institutions, and other persons, including investors, consultants, and research service providers’ of the heightened risks of doing business with Myanmar/Burma, noting that the February 2021 coup in the country, along with ‘subsequent abuses committed by the military’ have ‘fundamentally changed the direction of the economic and business environment…reversing the modest gains achieved since the country held its first parliamentary elections in 2011, and resulting in a more opaque business environment in which the military can draw from multiple sources of revenue to support its operations without civilian oversight.’
It says that entities and sectors of greatest concern include state-owned enterprises, gems and precious metals, real estate and construction projects and arms, military equipment, and related activity, noting:
‘Many businesses and individuals associated with these entities and sectors are subject to various restrictions imposed by several countries and international organizations in addition to the United States, including the European Union, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a non-binding resolution restricting the sale of arms into Burma.’
The report links to a number of resources intended to inform investors and decision making around high-risk jurisdictions, including the ‘Better Trade Tool’, developed by the US Department of Labor which ‘links trade data to available information on labor exploitation around the world,’ and which, it says, ‘offers users an additional level of detail that has been a missing piece in the global supply chain puzzle, empowering them to make strategic decisions based on better data.’
According to OFAC, ‘This new tool incorporates data on goods and country pairings that the Department of Labor has reason to believe are produced by child labor, forced labor, or forced or indentured child labor in violation of international standards; U.S. Census Bureau import trade data; and classification and mapping to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
‘In particular, the following goods are directly imported from Burma into the United States and have been identified by the Department of Labor as goods made with child or forced labor in Burma: garments (child labor), jade (child and forced labor), rice (child labor, forced labor, and forced child labor), rubies (child labor and forced labor), sesame (forced labor), shrimp (forced labor), and teak (child labor, forced labor, and forced child labor).’
https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/20220126_burma_advisory.pdf
