EU opens markets for Myanmar, ignores Rohingya Muslims

Despite the continued persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, the European Union Thursday announced that as of tomorrow, Myanmar is set to benefit once again from a special advantageous trade arrangement with the EU. A European Commission statement said it has taken the move "after the country's recent efforts to improve the political, social, and labour environments there." The EU will bring the country back under the preferential trade regime, known as the 'Generalised Scheme of Preferences', which will grant duty-free and quota-free access to the European market for all products except for arms and ammunitions. The EU's trade preferences had been suspended in 1997 as a result of Myanmar's serious and systematic violations of core international conventions on forced labour, the statement noted. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in press statements, "Trade is fundamental to supporting political stability and the EU's trade preferences mean we will give this reform-minded country priority access to the world's largest market. The EU is also going to help Myanmar boost the capacity of both public and private firms to make use of these new opportunities." Myanmar exports to the EU totaled 164 million euro in 2012, and this is approximately 3 percent of the country's total exports, and it comes to 0.01 percent of the EU's total imports. These limited exports to the EU are concentrated on clothing. Meanwhile, the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in a statement earlier this month called on the government of Myanmar to assume its responsibility to eradicate all forms of discrimination against Muslims. It said that this discrimination includes the 2005 law which imposes a policy on all Rohingya Muslim families that limits them to only two children. According to media reports, last year, at least 180 people were killed in the western state of Rakhine in clashes between local Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslim minority. In March, over 40 people were reported killed in Buddhist-Muslim clashes which broke in central Myanmar where mosques were burnt down and Muslim homes were destroyed.