YANGON, Myanmar--The United States has temporarily eased restrictions on trade through Myanmar's ports, a post-election move welcomed on Tuesday by business leaders in the economically booming Southeast Asian nation.
The policy shift comes after Myanmar held landmark polls last month swept by the pro-democracy opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi and will make it easier for U.S. companies to deal directly with the country's crucial ports and airports.
Washington lifted most trade sanctions against Myanmar after decades of brutal junta rule gave way to a quasi-civilian reformist government in 2011.
However dozens of junta-era cronies and their sprawling business interests remain on a Washington embargo.
That has made it difficult for businesses to trade with Myanmar because many key export and import points are run by still-blacklisted firms, including Yangon's busiest port terminal, which handles around half the country's freight.
But in a statement released on Monday, the United States Treasury announced a temporary six-month lifting of those restrictions.
"This is a good opportunity for the country because we lived in a closed system for 50 years, without good access to international trade," Thet Thet Khine, of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told AFP.
"The more open a country is to foreign trading, the more it will develop," added the businesswoman, who will also enter parliament next year as an MP for Suu Kyi's party. (Courtesy of The China Post)
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