Burmese unions back boycott - TUC urges Government to press for EU sanctions

TUC Burma Campaign

14 October 2007

The TUC has called on the Government to back comprehensive and unequivocal sanctions on the Burmese regime at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers on Monday 15 October. This supports the Burmese trade union call for a boycott of Burma, issued at the end of last week.

The TUC, in line with a call from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), has asked the British Government to push for:

• a comprehensive ban on investing in Burma by all EU-registered companies and their subsidiaries as well as EU citizens, applying both to new investments and to a requirement for divesting from existing business operations. This ban needs to include investment through joint-ventures, or similar arrangements, by EU-registered companies in all (not only 'named') Burmese state-owned companies;
• a prohibition on all EU-registered companies from entering into joint-ventures or contracts or doing business with the military and state-owned entities;
• a ban on the import into the EU of goods and services from Burma, and as a matter of particular urgency, a ban on import of those goods provided by entities owned and/or operated or produced by enterprises owned by or linked to the Burmese military, the military personnel and/or their relatives: this includes a ban on those strategically important goods that are produced under a monopoly of the Burmese state, such as timber and gems, and particularly oil and gas;
• a ban on international financial transfers and transactions to or from Burma by citizens, official entities or companies from the EU. This needs to include a ban for EU based companies on making, approving, financing, facilitating or guaranteeing international financial transactions with Burmese government-owned banks;
• actions to ensure that EU-originated arms are not sold to Burma via third countries - as has been thought to occur in cases involving Bulgaria, China, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, and Ukraine; and
• a ban on extending export credits by EU governments to their companies in relation to any trade with or investment in Burma.

The call is part of an ITUC campaign to isolate the Burmese regime and restrict its access to many of the outside income and currency that it seeks. The ITUC has written to 427 companies worldwide which have or are suspected to have business links with Burma, calling on them to end those links (see www.global-unions.org/burma/default.asp for the database).

Meanwhile, the Federation of Trade Unions in Burma has issued an unequivocal call on companies to stop supporting the Burmese regime by trading with Burma or in Burmese goods. See their statement at www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/FTUB.pdf