Following demands made by the international trade union called IndustriALL, Spain based Inditex which owns the famous fashion brand Zara announced that they would stop buying garments from Myanmar. 

Under the demand made by IndustriALL, the Inditex plans to leave Myanmar phase by phase responsibly. “We will reduce the number of garment factories which are manufacturing for our brand in Myanmar,” the announcement says. 

But the Inditex’s announcement did not say anything on how long it would take to leave Myanmar or how many factories in Myanmar at present are manufacturing garments for them. 

After the coup in Myanmar, many countries including US, UK, EU, Australia and Canada have imposed many economic sanctions against the junta leaders and military-owned businesses but they spared the garment industry which is giving many jobs to hundreds of thousands of Myanmar workers. 

The Burma Campaign UK which is lobbying for exiting Myanmar from oil, gas and natural resources extraction to cut the income sources of Myanmar military, did not call for the closing of the garment industry in Myanmar and exit from Myanmar but the companies which are following the international standards and norms are facing difficulties in continuing their businesses in Myanmar. 

The two international trade unions called IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll Europe issued an announcement on 11 July which called for withdrawing GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) given to the EU funded “Made in Myanmar” garment project as it exempted tax on garments imported from Myanmar and this benefited the Myanmar military. 

Another Spanish fashion brand Mango told Reuters that they have stopped buying garments from Myanmar. 

Like Inditex, other garment companies such as Aldi South, C&A, Primark, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Uniqlo company owner Fast Retailing and Muji’s parent company Ryohin are also planning to exit Myanmar.