Myanmar junta restricts exports as Bangladeshi banks freeze Burmese accounts

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – The Myanmar junta government has restricted exports to Bangladesh through ports after Bangladeshi banks froze the accounts of two Myanmar state banks, according to media reports.

The junta prohibited the export of various food commodities to Bangladesh via Maungdaw in Rakhine State after the decision by Bangladesh’s Sonali Bank, Myanmar Now reported.

The junta government made the decision after a meeting between junta chief Min Aung and Bangladesh’s mission head Mohammed Monwar Hossain, it said.

The regime’s Commerce Ministry announced on September 1 that restricted goods, including rice, beans, peanuts and onions, must be shipped through the commercial zone in Rakhine State’s capital of Sittwe, effective September 4.

“Sonali Bank (Bangladeshi state bank) imposed restrictions, which could lead to the smuggling of people and goods,” said Myint Thura, director general of the junta Commerce Ministry’s trade department, said the report.

The total value of goods exported to Bangladesh via Maungdaw exceeded $4.5 million between April and August of this year, it said.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control, an agency under the US Treasury Department, has imposed sanctions on two Myanmar banks.

The Bangladesh central bank issued an official order in late August that asked all commercial banks not to conduct financial transactions with two Myanmar state banks that come under US sanctions, according to a document obtained by the media.