Acts of Defiance: How US traders are ignoring sanctions to import conflict teak from Myanmar

Following the coup, natural resources provide a source of profit for the military, whereby the forests of Myanmar are defined by their monetary value and have been part of the military and economic elites’ profits and, in some cases, survival for decades.

This briefing provides an overview of how the imports of teak into the US have escalated since the coup to provide desperately needed hard currency for the regime and its cronies and carried out in defiance of US sanctions.