The FINANCIAL — The European Commission on Monday proposed to reinstate trade preferences with Myanmar to help support the country's political reforms.
The proposal would give Myanmar duty-free and quota-free access to the European market for all products except arms and ammunition, a commission statement said.
"Since Myanmar started to open up earlier this year I saw the need to underpin such deep and important changes with real economic support once key improvements for the workforce had been met," said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.
"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," he added in a statement.
"That said, we will continue to engage with Myanmar to encourage continued progress on all fronts."
As EUbusiness reported, under the proposal, Myanmar would be brought back under the so-called 'Everything But Arms' preferential trade regime.
"The Commission believes that, despite the many structural constraints the country continues to face, Myanmar should see an increase in exports to the EU market under the 'Everything But Arms' preferential trade regime."
Myanmar was suspended from the regime in 1997 due to its serious and systematic violations of international conventions on forced labour.
But in June, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) concluded that significant progress had been achieved although some problems with forced labour persisted.
Monday's proposal will be submitted to EU member states and the European Parliament for agreement.
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