New Delhi – United Kingdom retailer Cotton Traders has said it will sever business links with military-ruled Burma, less than a week after campaigners launched a boycott against the clothing company for sourcing merchandise from the troubled Southeast Asian country.
An official in the Director's Office of Cotton Traders in Cheshire, England, told Mizzima that the company will pull out all business from Burma, as they have received numerous calls inquiring as to their links with Burma.
"We have already issued press statements on it [the company's plan to pull out of Burma]," the official, who did not identify herself, told Mizzima by telephone.
Cotton Traders' decision to pull out of Burma came only days after The Burma Campaign UK launched a public boycott against the clothing retailer for sourcing products from Burma, whose military rulers maintain a dubious human rights record.
The Burma Campaign UK, a group advocating for human rights and democracy in Burma, said they welcome the decision by Cotton Traders, whose Product Director, Paul Hawkins, informed them that, "No new styles will be placed in Burma and as such Cotton Traders has ceased to source product from Burma."
"They [Cotton Traders] stopped because of the boycott campaign we launched and thanks to the hundreds of our supporters," Johnny Chatterton, Campaigns Officer at the rights group, told Mizzima.
Chatterton said that according to the British government there are around 30 million U.S. dollars worth of clothing imported to the United Kingdom every year from Burma, though the exact figures related to Cotton Traders are unknown.
"Cotton Traders haven't disclosed to us just how much they have been importing," said Chatterton, adding that his group will continue to investigate other companies who may be sourcing from Burma.
He said they have officially inquired into several companies, including The Animal, Bay Trading By Design Plc, Ciro Citterio, Etam, First Sport, Harrods, Intersport, Jane Norman, Jeffrey Rogers, Jo Bloggs, Liberty, Lillywhites and Mambo, as to whether or not they maintain business links with Burma.
"We have urged them to disclose if they have merchandise from Burma, but those companies have refused to reply us. We will continue to investigate them," he added.
The British Government has a decade-long policy of discouraging trade with Burma and has called on British companies not to operate there. In 2003, the United States banned imports of clothing from Burma.
According to The Burma Campaign UK, over 140 major high street clothing retailers, including M&S, Next, ASDA, H&M, Harrods, Debenhams, House of Fraser and BHS, have policies not to source from Burma.
"Cotton Traders have made the right decision and pulled out of Burma. However, they should never have been in the country at all," remarked Chatterton.
"By sourcing clothes from Burma they have helped to fund a dictatorship that uses rape, torture and murder to oppress its own people," he added.
In September, Lloyd's of London informed all of their agents to reconsider their business links with Burma after the financial behemoth came under similar pressure from both activists and Parliamentarians.
