Myanmar Law to Prevent an Increased Quantity of Imports to come into force 1 July 2021

28 August 2020

On 1 July 2020, the Myanmar Government announced that the Safeguard Law, which was passed by Parliament on 24 December 2019, will take effect on 1 July 2021. The law seeks to safeguard domestic production from serious injury or threat of serious injury caused by a sudden increase in imports through the imposition of certain safeguard measures for a limited period, thereby facilitating fair competition for domestic producers. Under the new law, a Committee for Preventing an Increased Quantity of Imports will be formed and led by the Ministry of Commerce. The Committee will be empowered to conduct investigations to determine the risk and impact of an increase of imports on the domestic market. Increased quantity of imports is defined under the new law as “a quantity of any kind of imports into Myanmar which is significantly higher than the amount of domestically produced goods that are similar or directly competitive”.