WorldCity, U.S.-Burma trade vaporized in 2003 | Connecting Local Business Leaders To The Global Economy

U.S.-Burma trade vaporized in 2003

September 30th, 2007

The world’s attention has once again focused on Burma, an Asian nation with oil and natural gas reserves whose military dictatorship is clamping down on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.

U.S. trade with Burma, or Myanmar, as the military leaders want it called, is relatively non-existent, due to an import ban passed by Congress in 2003. At that time, Aung San Suu Kyi, first elected in 1990, had been imprisoned once again.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the National League for Democracy has spent most of the last 18 years in prison or under house arrest.

Through the first seven months of the year, U.S. trade with Burma was $7.2 million, a 51 percent increase over the previous January through July period but a mere sliver of the $225.6 million July 2003 year-to-date figures, before the congressional action.

At that time, the leading imports from Burma related not to energy but apparel sweaters, men’s coats, boys’ shirts, women’s blouses and most of it entered the United States through either New York or Los Angeles.

The 2007 trade is 100 percent exports, and imports have been virtually nonexistent since 2003.

Though the first seven months of 2007, the exports have been led by soybean oil cake, phone equipment and automobiles.

In July of 2003, Burma was the United States’ 98th-ranked trade partner. Through of the first seven months of 2007, Burman was ranked No. 200.

Rank	Exports	July 2007 YTD	July 2006 YTD	July 2005 YTD	July 2004 YTD
	Total, All Commodities	$7,151,714	$4,726,503	$2,974,218	$5,507,093
1	Soybean oilcake, other solid residue, not ground	$1,629,351
2	Electric equipment for line telephony	$1,331,028		$30,127	$4,093
3	Motor vehicles for transporting people	$448,731	$71,250		$10,000
4	Machinery parts	$397,144	$194,641	$98,347	$348,195
5	Compressors and pumps	$337,520	$176,282
6	Battery waste, scrap, misc. electrical machinery parts	$233,831
7	Whey and milk products	$198,214
8	Prepared explosives	$195,154	$355,347	$259,500	$224,096
9	Builders' ware of plastics	$189,766	$3,640	$53,830
10	Misc. raw materials for industrial manufacturing	$175,911	$31,069	$24,500	$24,000
11	Internal combustion engines, including aircraft	$146,896		$184,226	$28,427
12	Low value shipments	$131,355	$82,546	$60,999	$112,760
13	X-ray apparatus	$121,952		$4,500	$54,493
14	Prepared foods, beverages	$82,884	$987,230	$133,818	$230,818
15	Medical instruments for surgeons, dentists, vets	$82,756	$407,433		$24,642
16	Doors, window frames, wooden joinery	$75,000
17	Books, brochures	$72,072	$3,198		$8,066
18	Electrical supplies, apparatus, more than 1000V	$66,012	$65,087	$6,581	$6,382
19	Misc. iron or steel structures and parts	$65,940
20	Internal combustion piston engines, including aircraft	$63,000		$29,637
21	Medical equipment for physicals, including anal exams	$59,704	$189,947	$117,118	$64,313
22	Aircraft parts	$59,500		$151,073	$55,746
23	Chemical woodpulp	$56,513	$79,717	$107,969	$69,649
24	Misc. plastic articles	$52,344	$63,497	$18,093	$25,713
25	Plastic tableware and other products	$51,470
26	Blow torches, anvils, misc. hand tools	$50,000		$3,331
27	Air conditioning machines	$50,000
28	Furniture, parts	$50,000
29	Miscellaneous machines, parts	$48,050	$59,300	$77,394	$70,513
30	Electric generating sets, rotary converters	$46,800
31	Medicine	$46,796	$28,814	$67,578
32	Transmission apparatus for cellular phones	$39,972		$50,536
33	Provitamins and vitamins	$35,972	$122,791	$55,037	$58,458
34	Plastic baths, washbasins, toilets	$34,625
35	Exports of charitable items, returned as imports	$33,516		$20,000	$24,776
36	Computers	$30,318	$9,297	$4,925	$40,380