Trade experts and analysts warned Monday that trade between the United States and Myanmar could significantly decrease in the wake of the country’s military state of emergency.
Since 2013, the U.S. and Myanmar have regularly engaged in trade under an agreement that ended years of sanctions from the United States.
The two countries traded roughly $1.3 billion in goods in 2020 – up from $1.2 billion in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The industry most likely to be impacted is footwear, Reuters reported. According to Panjiva, the supply chain research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, apparel and footwear accounted for roughly 41% of U.S. imports from Myanmar.
Apparel makers LL Bean, H&M and Adidas are among the American companies that rely on trade with Myanmar.
According to reports from the World Bank, Foreign Direct Investment in Myanmar rose dramatically in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, mostly from Singapore and Hong Kong.
But the future of such investment may be less certain amid the country’s political instability.
The United States said on Monday it would review the trade agreement between the two countries as Washington ponders sanctions against Myanmar after the country’s military detained political leaders and declared the commander-in-chief leader.
