Mass. Law Affects U.S.-Burma Trade

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Mass. law affects U.S.-Myanmar trade-court papers

BOSTON, July 28 (Reuters) - A Massachusetts state law appears to be having
some affect on trade between the United States and Myanmar, papers filed in
federal court show. 

The 1996 law bans access to Massachusetts' $2 billion annual procurement to
any company that also does business with Burma, as Myanmar was formerly known.
Some 346 firms are currently barred including 15 Fortune 500 companies. 

The Washington, D.C.-based National Foreign Trade Council, representing almost
600 companies, has filed a suit in federal court in Boston seeking to overturn
the state law. 

Both the NFTC and Massachusetts agreed in court papers filed Friday that
companies either stopped doing business in Myanmar to gain business from the
state or lost contracts with Massachusetts because they continued doing
business with the military government in Myanmar. 

Myanmar's foreign trade generates about $2.3 billion in revenues annually. The
country is a major source of oil, gas and timber. 

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority rejected all bids received on two
contracts after those bids had been reviewed and it was discovered the agency
failed to obtain certification from bidders that they were not doing business
with Myanmar. 

The European Union has filed a friend of the court brief in support of the
NFTC. A court hearing is set for Sept. 23. 

Massachusetts is the only state to enact curbs on Myanmar, but 20 other U.S.
municipalities have also taken trade measures against the military regime. 

Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition party leader Aung San Suu
Kyi spent a fifth day in her car Tuesday after the military refused to let her
visit her National League for Democracy supporters outside the capital of of
Yangon. 

Her party won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but was never allowed to
take power. The military had seized office in 1988 after crushing
demonstrations.