There is growing interest amongst Chinese manufacturers to set up facilities in Myanmar. This is mainly owing to the 25 per cent tariff imposed by the US on upto $50 billion Chinese products. In a retaliatory move, Beijing too imposed a 25 per cent tariff on $34 billion tariff worth of US goods to China.

Recently, the US also threatened to levy an additional 10 per cent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese products. If imposed, the move would place around half of China’s $505 billion worth of exports to the US under tariffs. Therefore, a rising number of Chinese manufacturers want to produce out of Myanmar, enabling them to bypass US tariffs. Mainly, businesses from China wish to set up their facilities in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, which has been equipped with necessary power and transport infrastructure for ease of doing business. Out of the 94 companies in Thilawa SEZ, just one, garment manufacturer Lu Thai Co, is from China.