Jan 21 2017
Out with the old as Myanmar restricts used car imports
Almost all of the cars on Myanmar's road are second-hand, 90 percent of them from Japan, even though the two nations drive on different sides of the road. Used car imports surged after the government liberalised restrictions in 2012, the year after breaking from half a century of isolationist military rule
But until recently Western trade sanctions blocked imports of left-hand drive cars from Europe and the US, forcing motorists to turn to Japanese vehicles. As a result horn-beeping drivers routinely veer into the centre of the road to guage whether it is safe to overtake and buses unload passengers into the middle of busy streets