Strong Kyat Hits China Border Trade

By MIN LWIN

Border trade between Burma and China has decreased significantly in the past three weeks because of the rise in the Burmese kyat, businessmen told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

The price of one dollar is around 1,015 to the kyat, and 142 kyat to the Chinese yuan. In late 2008, one yuan was about 176 kyat. The Burmese currency has shown great strength recently.

The businessman said the kyat gained more than 20 percent this week against the Chinese currency, and as a result, trade has suffered because Chinese buyers are forced to pay higher prices for Burmese goods.

“Border trade has decreased by nearly one half,” said a Burmese businessman in Ruili, China. “Businesses are struggling to obtain cash to pay workers and goods.”

Commodities are piling up on both sides of the border, waiting for buyers.

According to Burmese statistics, the border trade volume at Muse amounted to US $311 million in 2006, and $257 million in 2005.

Cross-border traders also complain that the Burmese authorities from the Na Sa Ka (Department of Border Trade) are making it more difficult to import Chinese goods to Burma.

“They are restricting the Chinese trade. They don’t allow very much from the China side,” said a cross-border trader in Muse Township.

“It is difficult to transport Chinese goods to Rangoon, because many checkpoints want to seize our goods,” she said.

The Burma-China border crossing at Muse was officially opened for trade in December 1988.

After a ceasefire agreement between the Burmese military and local ethnic opposition groups in the early 1990s, government officials on both sides of the Burma-China border played a key role in increasing both legal and illegal trade, according to local businessmen.