In many countries trade and investment can help people, but in Burma the opposite is the case. Despite calls for sanctions, there has been billions of dollars of foreign trade and investment, and this has helped keep the brutal dictatorship in power.

Burma’s democracy movement has called for targeted economic sanctions against the dictatorship. Financial sanctions would be highly effective as a tool to pressure the dictatorship, as they would target the elite without having an impact on most ordinary people in Burma.