BANGKOK/TOKYO — Japanese and Thai companies began flocking to Myanmar a decade ago, betting that its tentative embrace of democracy would open up an untapped market. Now the military coup threatens to throw long-nurtured business plans into disarray.
The risk for foreign companies, which have been eager to use Myanmar as a production base as well as tap its nascent domestic market, is threefold: the possibility that the U.S. and Europe will reimpose sanctions on the Southeast Asian country, the reputational risk of doing business under a military regime, and policy uncertainty.
The specter of Western sanctions is looming especially large.
“We are not very concerned about border trade, as that has got back to normal,” Supant Mongkolsuthree, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, told Nikkei Asia. “What we are worried about is that sanctions from the West could affect Thai…
