According to Burmese and Mon onion and fish traders who regularly traffic their wares to Thailand through Myawaddy Town in Karen State, Burmese authorities and their relatives are behind recent freezes in trade traffic through Myawaddy.

An onion trader who regularly brings his goods to Myawaddy from his home in Moulmein informed IMNA that the Burmese government started restricting trade to Thailand out of Myawaddy a month ago. Myawaddy is a major hub in the international trade between Thailand and Burma; goods that are exported from Burma into Thailand include onions, shoes, automobiles, motorbikes, computer, and other electronics.

“Now it is very difficult to bring goods from inside Burma because a few months ago, in the Economic Zone [the trade checkpoint] at Myawaddy Town, they would not allow exporting. But we heard about how the son of a Burmese Government authority caused this. They [the Burmese authorities] don’t want the traders to bring anything through [the checkpoint], they want bring everything themselves and get more profit. But if the traders bribe the zone authorities, they are allowed to bring their goods through at night time,” he added

The Burmese Weekly Eleven reported on Monday, in a Burmese story titled “Thailand Scheduled to Build Economic Zone on Thai-Burma Border at Mae Sot“, that on October 6th of this year, the Thai Prime Minister announced his plan for the creation of a new trading checkpoint at Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burma border, a decision agreed upon by Burmese and Thai trade authorities. The building of the checkpoint will, according to the Burmese Weekly Eleven, cost 400 million baht.

A Mon trader who traffics his goods between Mae Sot and Myawaddy told IMNA, “We have not heard yet about the building [of the checkpoint], and also it has not started yet, things are still normal. If a taxi goes to Mae Sot, it has to give 50 baht at the toll bridge. If they build a new zone, taxi drivers will have to pay more money, and then trucks from Thailand will also have to stop there [ like a Kate station].”

A Karen cellular phone merchant from Mae Sot told IMNA, “We heard information about them building a zone but it is not certain, we don’t know yet. Thai authorities have not come to ask for [tax] money at my house yet.”