Since Myanmar officially took power in February, in the following months, due to the lack of protection of human rights and nature, it began to suffer economic sanctions from many countries in the world.
The government's long-term economic sanctions in Myanmar have led to a decline in GDP of 18%. For this reason, the government has a special resource in its hands to attract foreign currency into Myanmar. For centuries, the timber produced by teak forests has been regarded as the hard currency of the army, and the sale of this precious tropical timber in exchange for currency in circulation has become the main method of Myanmar's official fund-raising.
Just recently, the state-owned entity Myanmar timber company that controls sales in Myanmar stated that it will auction 12,500 tons of hardwood from August 16 to 30, of which the timber for sale includes 1,500 tons of teak logs and 1,000 tons of sawn teak. The auction will be held in Yongsheng Township, Yangon, and buyers will bid online.
As early as May of this year, officials had already held three separate auctions, in which nearly 10,300 tons of timber were sold at a price of about 5 million U.S. dollars, and more than 14,000 tons of timber were auctioned again in June.
Why is the timber auctioned in Myanmar defined as illegal timber by international equipment? Because of the definition of international timber trafficking, “all timber mined in violation of local laws is illegal” and currently the only legal way to import timber from Myanmar is to deal with the state-owned subsidiary MTE (Myanmar Timber Enterprise), but the subsidiary currently controls In the hands of the authorities and hit by international sanctions. This means that all timber exported since Myanmar took power has been illegal timber.
Since 2017, strict scrutiny of the illegal timber trade and severe penalties for violating companies have prevented shipments from Myanmar to many EU countries. Although the EU imposes sanctions and supervision on Myanmar's timber trade, trivial fines and weak enforcement have made Italy a hot spot for illegal timber trade in Myanmar.
EIA (Environmental Investigation Agency, the British Timber Trade Regulatory Agency) stated in a report on September 1 that although there are clear regulations that prohibit the import of such timber in the form of EU timber regulations, there are still 27 Italian timber traders Teak is imported from Myanmar to the European Union. From March to May this year alone, Italian traders imported wood worth 1.5 million to 1.77 million U.S. dollars from Myanmar. In other words, even after the European authorities imposed trade sanctions on Burma by providing funds to the Burmese military and destroying forests, Italian timber traders continued to buy and sell timber in large numbers.
The EIA report also revealed a series of embarrassing data on Italian industry. The EU is the third largest market for Myanmar's timber, accounting for 19% of imports. Among them, Italy has always been the largest importer of Myanmar timber products among EU member states. In order to comply with the EU Timber Law of 2013 and the sanctions of 2021, Italy’s timber imports have been increasing and now account for 66% of the total timber entering the EU.
The Italian timber trade is encouraged by the needs of the maritime industry and will continue to import Burmese timber, but there will undoubtedly be people who associate luxury yacht interiors with violent regimes. Facing the teak auctions that are so tempted by Myanmar, on the one hand, it is the increasingly scarce supply and strong market demand, on the other hand, it is the condemnation of the international community and the restrictions of regulations. As the EU's first timber importing country, Italy will be here How about a shot in an auction?