Border traders throughout Myanmar are grappling with rising commodity prices and shortages of goods as fighting between the junta and forces battling to end military rule disrupts trade, an independent think tank said. Myanmar’s military junta controls 11 of the country’s 17 border trade posts, with China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh, after recently losing territory to anti-junta forces, the Institute for Strategy and Policy, or ISP-Myanmar, said in a report released on April 13. On the Thai border, fighting over the last month between the military and insurgents for control of Myawaddy town – Myanmar’s busiest border crossing – has led to the suspension of all trade for weeks. Myawaddy, across a border river from the Thai town of Mae Sot, accounts for almost one-fourth of Myanmar’s total trade. In normal times, goods worth an average of US$5.5 million pass through the town every day, ISP-Myanmar added. “The customs department, the trade d