Work Coordination Meeting: Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee Meeting

The Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee held its work coordination meeting in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday, with Committee Chairman Deputy Prime Minister and Union Minister for Planning and Finance U Win Shein addressing the meeting.

In his speech, the Union Minister highlighted the committee's substantial progress since its recent reformation, reporting over 13,000 cases of illegal trade seizures amounting to more than 275 billion kyats as of June 2024. The Customs Department led the enforcement efforts in May and June, with Mandalay Region being the most active, followed by Sagaing Region and Shan State.

The seized items mostly included unlicensed vehicles, industrial raw materials, and consumer goods. Drug seizures alone from January to June this year exceeded 127 billion kyats. He urged for rigorous legal action and effective investigations.

He also emphasized the implementation of Non-Tariff Measures to ensure the import of quality products and the advancement of the Phase (2) e-Lock system to better control illegal trading activities.The meeting included a review of ongoing work, assessment reports on illegal trade, and updates on seizures of drugs, arms, ammunition, controlled chemicals, unlicensed vehicles, liquor, fuel, foodstuffs, medicines, and cosmetics.

Additionally, the committee discussed strategies for preventing illegal trade, analyzing import-export comparisons, commodity flows at trade posts, and tackling illegal online sales.