Two months after the military coup in Burma, the Biden administration announced a cutoff of trade engagement with Rangoon “until the return of a democratically elected government.” The U.S. trade representative’s office (USTR) also said on Monday it would consider, as part of congressional reauthorization of the Generalized System of Preferences, whether Burmese products should remain eligible for duty-free entry to the United States.
Burma is a relatively insignificant U.S. trading partner although one of the major rice-growing nations of the world. It exports around 2.5 million tonnes of rice a year, half or more of it to China. Legumes, rice and bananas were the top agricultural exports, said a WTO summary.
The USDA opened an agricultural trade office in Burma in 2018 and said Burma “offers significant market potential” for U.S. bulk commodities and high-end foods for the restaurant and tourist trade.
According to the USTR, Burma ran a $689 million surplus in trade with the United States in 2020. U.S. ag exports totaled $167 million, with soybean meal accounting for 55 percent of the sales. Burma sent $18 million in ag products to the United States; at $8 million, pulses were the leading product.
A March 5 report by the USDA agricultural trade office in Rangoon about the impact of coup on the agriculture sector and trade is available here.