Early this month 30 Burmese government officials and traders came to Imphal, courtesy of India's ministry of commerce and industries, to scout for trading opportunities, interact with government officials, bankers and their counterparts. The aim was to boost the seemingly declining border trade between the two countries.
The Indo-Burma border trade accord was signed on 21 January, 1994 and trade through Manipur’s Moreh town was legalised in April 1995 with 22 items on the list. After the initial euphoria, barter trade peaked in 1996 but took a downslide with many instruments of trade, including the letter of credit, non-operational. The number of items was not enough to sustain the market. While the opening of the trade gave small-time traders dealing in “Moreh goods” — mostly comprising smuggled third-country products — they felt a sense of respectability of being an importer-exporter, but what actually flourished was the parallel trade of third-country goods.
The Burmese were keen to do business with their Indian counterparts. Some of them are well-established traders and can also speak Hindi. Among the proposals they made at a one-day interaction programme with heads of various related Manipur government departments and bank representatives was the expansion of trading items and operation of letters of credit.
Secretary of Union of Myanmar Border Trade Chamber of Commerce U Aye Ko called for doing away with brokers. He also urged the Indian authorities to consider including fertiliser in the trade list, arguing that it played a supportive role in enhancing agricultural products which India needs. At present, truckloads of fertiliser, sold to farmers at a subsidised rate, find their way into Burma.
Traders from Manipur are undergoing a short-term course at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade to get themselves acquainted with import and export. This followed the recent visit of Union minister of state for commerce and industries Ramesh Jayaram to Moreh where a land Customs complex is coming up.
Efforts are on to make India’s Look Easy Policy a success and Burma is looking at India’s one billion rupees worth of market. U Aye Ko said, “I suggest to all to strenuously discuss and negotiate the promotion of border trade and increase the volume.”
But one major constraint why the trade is yet to take off even 12 years after its legalisation is the incompatibility of the system of government — democracy and military dictatorship.
India’s keenness in engaging Burma in trade stems from several other factors than any love for the dictatorial military junta which has been severely criticised for its human rights violation. The junta knows this and is suspicious of Delhi’s every move. It knows about India’s interest in the increasing Chinese influence in Burma and the insurgency in the North-east. Both are playing their cards too close to their chest for a healthy relationship.
The Moreh-Mandalay bus service which could be the backbone of the trade is yet to get Rangoon’s clearance, though the Centre has given its clearance. This does not happen easily. “At least two Buddhas have smiled,” was how Jairam had described getting these two departments to agree on the bus service proposal. It took ages for the Centre to clear the use of mobile phones in the North-east.
For Rangoon, the Sagaing Division, through which passes the the bulk of trade, is just like carrying goods from the North-east to Delhi. It is, in a way, a highly militarised area.
Communication between Rangoon and the Sagaing Division is bad and it takes time for any communiqué to reach Tamu, eight kilometres from Moreh. What the Rangoon offices or its embassy in India may clear may not be enough for the local commanders — this many an Indian trade delegation and a tourist have found out to their dismay.
What is essential for the Centre — a free media — is a “no” for the junta. If the caution and a degree of fear with which the Burmese delegates reacted to the media in Imphal is anything to go by, it will be a long time before any healthy free trade develops between the two countries — at least across the troubled Indo-Burma border.