YANGON, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Entrepreneurs in Myanmar are seeking through European embassies in the country for withdrawal of European Union (EU)'s intended trade sanctions, the official Global New Light of Myanmar quoted the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) as reporting on Friday.
An EU monitoring team, in its mission to evaluate if it should withdraw its existing Generalized Scheme of Preference (GSP) offered to Myanmar, arrived on the weekend and met with labor and business circles in Yangon through to Tuesday.
The EU sent the monitoring team to Myanmar for the trade sanction assessment out of an allegation that Myanmar violated human rights as well as workers rights. It is considering to withdraw its GSP offered to Myanmar.
In the case of EU's revoking of the GSP, it can adversely affect the entire garment sector which is engaged in by over 500,000 workers, said UMFCCI Joint General Secretary Daw Khine khine Nwe.
Most of the laborers are working in Yangon, with 19 percent of them coming from Rakhine state, constituting 6.1 million U.S. dollars being remitted back to the western state, which she said is a great source of income that contributes materially to their families.
According to the UMFCCI, there are over 500 garment factories in Myanmar, with 65 percent of them being foreign-invested and the garments are exported mainly to European countries.
The EU revoked its GSP to Myanmar in 2003 out of political reasons but re-granted the privileges after 10 years in 2013.
However, the EU announced on Oct. 5 that they would send a mission to Myanmar to evaluate the revoke of the GSP due to the Rakhine issue.
The EU mission will submit their findings and recommendations to the EU Parliament for further action.
