WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s revised global tariff plan unveiled Thursday (July 31) hit Laos and Myanmar hard with a 40% import duty - the second-highest rate in the world behind only Syria at 41%.
The White House hasn’t explained its rationale, and US trade with all three is small compared with its other partners.
Myanmar remains under US sanctions following its 2021 coup, and Laos has drawn US scrutiny for deepening ties with China. Syria, meanwhile, had been penalised for human rights abuses under former President Bashar Al-Assad, but the US has sought to ease those restrictions since his overthrow last year.
In Myanmar’s case, trade with the US totalled US$734 million last year - yet the penalty will deepen an economic collapse that began when Min Aung Hlaing seized power in a coup more than four years ago.
Washington has imposed sanctions for what it sees as the junta’s use of violence against civilians and suppression of democracy activists.
The tariff announcement came just a day after Myanmar’s junta lifted emergency rule, paving the way for elections later this year. The US and other governments have criticised the vote as neither being free nor fair.
Myanmar’s junta chief praised Trump in a rare letter last month and compared his military’s coup to the US president’s baseless claims of election fraud, suggesting both leaders were victims of rigged votes.
Min Aung Hlaing also requested a reduced tariff rate and offered to send a high-level trade delegation to Washington.
Deputy Commerce Minister Min Min said by phone the government was unaware of the development and declined to comment.
As for Laos, US exports to the South-East Asian nation totalled $40.4 million last year, while imports reached $803.3 million. The US has raised concern over its economic dependence on China and mounting debt tied to Chinese infrastructure projects.
Trump recently signed an executive order easing sanctions on Syria to help rebuild the war-torn country and support its new government.
Observers say there may be a simple reason for the high levies.
"Rather than pick on these three nations, I suspect limited bandwidth in DC led officials to focus on bigger fry,” said Simon Evenett, founder of the St. Gallen Endowment for Prosperity Through Trade, a group based in Switzerland that tracks trade policies. - Bloomberg
