They’re the ones that will be hurt the most, said international business expert Pavida Pananond. This time, workers who rely on daily wages as well as small businesses that rely on tourism and people who have the financial ability to spend can’t sustain the long disruption to revenue. īigger players, mostly large companies in the private sector, were more affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. With long quarantine times on both entry and return, Chinese tourists have all but stopped flocking to countries like Thailand, which before 2020 saw well over 10 million tourists from China per year, according to data from Chinese travel website. Sellers are struggling to get into China, but tourists are also struggling to get out-dealing a serious blow to Southeast Asian economies. “Traders aren’t making money therefore, traders aren’t buying therefore, people aren’t planting,” Bissinger outlined. As a result, wholesalers have begun to factor in the jacked-up costs and pare down their demands, leaving farmers without a market. “You’ve already committed to selling.” It’s not easy to change course by transporting fresh goods to another country, especially from the main gateways that offer a passageway into China but are located far from everyone else. If a trader has made it to the border, they’ve already incurred a significant cost, Bissinger said. Increasing uncertainty has made sellers weigh the possibility that any trip could end in border rejection.Īll this has made dealing with China extra expensive, a burden shoved onto traders in Myanmar and other border states, explained Jared Bissinger, a Washington-based development economist focused on Myanmar and Southeast Asia. The Chinese central government is requiring coronavirus testing before entering truckers arrive, and in some cases, shipping containers holding the commodities must be purchased from China-at great cost to sellers from Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos.Īlthough China reopened several borders to its southern provinces last November, which had been closed for months, the central government introduced a slew of new restrictions, from daily entry quotas to border disinfection stations, that make it more challenging to move goods across checkpoints. But the impact goes beyond that, suggesting that-at least for Southeast Asia-China’s isolation from the outside world is not sustainable.Ĭhina is keeping a close watch on the trucks and truckers hoping to exchange crops for cash-making trade uncertain. Although several checkpoints have reopened, cross-border trade remains uncertain.įresh fruit, vegetables, and other perishable goods-like seafood, which wholesalers need to keep frozen as it’s moved from the southern coasts to up north-have been the biggest casualty. The city of Baise, bordering Vietnam, went into lockdown early February, and several cities in the border province of Yunnan shut down last fall. Recent photos have shown huge swaths of farmland covered in rotting fruit and trucks loaded with vegetables stopped at border checkpoints, barred from crossing into China’s southern cities, which were ordered into new lockdowns following the latest spike in COVID-19. It also has a growing semiconductor industry, which China has great demand for. In agriculture, Vietnam and Myanmar accounted for more than half of China’s rice imports in 2020, and Thailand is a major supplier of raw construction materials. Southeast Asian countries, particularly Thailand, are important suppliers of raw goods, such as rubber and electrical parts, which are vital to China’s construction and auto industries. ![]() Southeast Asian traders, farmers, and business owners are struggling to get their goods into the region’s largest market-with no sign of a return to normal on the horizon. ![]() ![]() While Myanmar’s absence drew much international attention, bloc leaders were also concerned with developing a coordinated economic response to ongoing trade and travel barriers, as Southeast Asia’s largest market, China, continues to remain largely closed.Ĭhina’s strict coronavirus policy has left land borders tightly sealed and caused huge backlogs at ports. Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-minus a representative from military-occupied Myanmar-met this week for an annual retreat in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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